CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Details

NAME: Peter Leslie Keelan
POSTAL ADDRESS:    PO Box 884
Denmark
Western Australia
Australia  6333
TELEPHONE/FAX: Within Australia: 08 9840 9674
International: 61 8 984 09674
Mobile: 042 779 8438
EMAIL:
WEBSITE: www.peterkeelan.com.au
DATE OF BIRTH: 16th February 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH: Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
NATIONALITY: Australian

Management

2010  Administered and produced Cecile Williams' Perth International Arts Festival exhibition
2009  Produced and managed seven week tour to Australia by the Narasirato Pan Pipers, including Byron Bluesfest, Melbourne Recital Centre, Brisbane Powerhouse and Port Fairy Festival
2008  Managed the $252,000 budget, wrote the contracts and organized the logistics for the Big Five O Project, Christmas Island
2007  Produced and managed tours to Malaysia and Bahrain by the Narasirato Pan Pipers (Solomon Islands)
2007  Produced and managed an eight week tour of Australia by the Narasirato Pan Pipers
2006  Creating the Strategic and Operational Plan for producing the inaugural National and World Festival of Pan Pipe in the Solomon Islands. This has included high level government meetings and gaining international funding support.
2006  PUTart Project, with Kimberley Wildlife Rescue, Kununurra.
2004  General Manager of Kununurra Youth Services, working with Indigenous youth 'at risk'. Managing five employees and an annual budget of three hundred thousand dollars (one year contract).

Artistic Director

2010  Denmark Festival of Voice and closing concert.
2008  Directed the Denmark Festival of Voice, a festival featuring many aspects of the human voice... beatbox, choirs, acapella, workshops and more.
2008  Directed an original piece of theatre, Kapow, with Southern Edge Arts, Albany.
2008  Musical director of The Big Five O, in collaboration with community musicians and groups from Christmas Island, together with professional artists from Malaysia and Australian mainland.
2006  Six months volunteering as Festival Director, researching and developing a plan towards producing the inaugural World Festival of Pan Pipe. This included two self funded trips to the Solomon Islands.
2005  Research towards the World Festival of Pan Pipe in the Solomon Islands
2003  Fremantle Street Arts Festival, for the City of Fremantle
2000  Co-Artistic Director Kalamunda Zig Zag Festival Closing Event involving 400 performers
1998 Soundscape Meditation Concert 2, Festival Fremantle.
1997 Megadrums 2 for Festival of Fremantle

Soundscape Meditation Concert, Festival Fremantle

1996 Meggadrums Camp, conceptualised and administrated to fruition
1995 Deep Sea Gossip, original music/theatre by Tok Pan Tok for Festival Fremantle

Musical Director

2008  Directed The Big Five O, an eight week project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Australia taking over sovereignty of Christmas Island.
2005  High Spirits community theatre project, Christmas Island. Recording Chinese and Malay musicians, 'junk' musical instruments from local rubbish tip, remixing and creating the soundtrack for theatre performance, together with live music.
2003  Awarded an Australia Council for the Arts two year Fellowship - a collaborative music making project, living for three months in each of Bolivia, Romania, Malawi and the Solomon Islands, to compose, record and produce original works alongside and in collaboration with local musicians in each of those countries.
1999  Vlam 1 Multi Arts Outdoor project in Cape Town, South Africa, with a band including 100 piece African choir, 65 piece percussion and brass band and twelve core musicians. The project was a cultural exchange between SWAPCO Australia and the Jazzart Dance Theatre of South Africa.
1998 Kalamunda Zig Zag Festival, with a 50 piece choir, indigenous didgeridoo player, folk musicians, and youth musicians for the Ran Dan Club community performance

Festival Fremantle - Opening Concert at Bathers Beach, Fremantle

1997 Kulcha - nine piece world music band - Hillarys Fire Event

Bizircus Big Band - for a production of Cyber Circus

1996 MACWA Festival of Fire, forming a large multicultural band

Busselton Beach Festival - ritual event with the Ran Dan Club

1995 2 Dance Plus - in collaboration with contemporary dancers to compose and record four solo dance pieces, relating to the destruction of urban coastal lakes

Coco Youth Theatre Company - with the three town circus project.

Medium, Rare, or Well Drummed - community band performance with Denmark Arts Council.

1994 Barking Gecko Theatre Company - co-musical director of Voyage of Poppykettle
1992 Steps Youth Dance Theatre - for production Steppin Out, Mayman Theatre
1991 Pan pipe orchestra performance at Fremantle Town Hall, for Festival Fremantle

Commissions

1999  Kalamunda Zig Zag Festival - to hold workshops and interviews with the committee as well within the community, and to write a three year festival plan

Jane Whiteley's From Within: to compose and record a piece to accompany her solo textiles show

1998 Public Sound Sculpture: Percent for Art commission for Clarkson Senior High School, in collaboration with visual artist Cecile Williams

Touring

2000  Woodford Festival, Queensland - performances with Tok Pan Tok
1998 Singapore Festival of Arts - street theatre program with Whak
1997 Melbourne Festival of Arts - Festival opening performance and street theatre with Whak

Darwin Fringe Festival/Kimberleys Tour with Whak

1996 Canadian Tour with group Whak performing at folk music and street theatre festivals for three months, acting as administrator and performer
1995 East Kimberleys Regional tour of Western Australia with Tok Pan Tok
1990 Bougainvillea Festival in Darwin with AC-PVC
1989 PCAP Tours by AC-PVC to the Albany, Murchison and Merredin districts

Community Artist in Residence

2010  Roebourne, Western Australia aboriginal community teaching film making

Wickham, Western Australia, teaching film making and sound recording

AIR Project working as a sound artist in schools in Denmark, Albany, Mount Barker and Cranbrook, culminating at Nowanup Camp, Western Australia

Western Desert Kidney Project workshops in Menzies and Norseman, teaching film making, sound recording and drumming.

2008  Recycled music and musical instruments, as part of the RESURRECT Project, Albany, Western Australia in collaboration with Cecile Williams and local artists to produce an exhibition of sculptural musical instruments.
2006  PUTART project (Places Under Threat) as community musician in collaboration with visual artists Lorraine Biggs from Tasmania and Cecile Williams from Western Australia, together with the local community to question and expose the extent of the cane toad invasion into Western Australia, using music, sound and environmental art.

Southern Edge Arts - working with 'at risk' Noongyar youth to make musical instruments, learn to play them and finally perform as Hysterikool Mob at the opening of the Albany Indigenous Medical Centre

2005  Christmas Island project working as a musician, recording engineer, producer and community musician to engage the local community members, including the Chinese and Malay communities, to become involved in the project.
1999  Mt. Lawley Rotary Club, working with youth to build a kinetic sculpture

Kalgoorlie Primary School music workshops

Perth Modern School - helping immigrant students in a confidence building program

1998 Kununurra Youth Services, sculptural instrument making, music playing workshops in Kalumbaru and Wyndham

Clarkson Community High School, working with two groups of non-music students to compose and record semi-improvised pieces of music on unusual instruments

Fairbridge Festival - schools workshops for junk marching band

Karratha Walkington Theatre - holiday music workshops

Geraldton Sea Jazz Festival, making sculptural musical instruments from recycled materials, holding workshops at a youth drop-in centre, with older Aboriginal men and schoolchildren

Broome Fringe Festival - forming a marching percussion orchestra

Coco Youth Theatre - musical director/composer/instrument maker

1997 Walkington Theatre, Karratha - musical workshops

Kununurra High School - musical workshops

W.A. Week - workshops with migrant children

1996 MAWA - musician and administrator of multicultural big band

Stories of the Mangrove, with Whak and the Ran Dan Club, Broome Fringe Festival

Brave New Works a festival of contemporary theatre works, Denmark Arts Council

1995 East Kimberley Youth Services - instrument making and playing workshops with Aboriginal students at a youth camp in Warmun

Christmas Island with Ran Dan Club giving school and public workshops

1994 Priority Education Country Areas Program tour of the Kimberlies giving performances and workshops in world music with Tok Pan Tok

Mandurah Shire - Healthways workshop in visual arts, circus and music

WA Water Authority - PVC instruments making workshop and display

Fairbridge Festival - workshops in Pinjarra schools and performances

1993 Claremont School of Art - devising, constructing and exhibiting sculptural musical instruments in collaboration with students

Sambanistas Street Percussion - weekly workshops throughout the year.

WA Week Council - workshops with migrant children

Inner City Mission - instrument making and playing at their drop-in meals centre

Karnivale - music workshops leading to a parade

Little Feet Festival - pan pipe making workshops

Department of Employment and Training - children's multicultural instrument making


Music/Theatre Performances

2007 Tok Pan Tok at Fairbridge Festival and Brave New Works Festival, in collaboration with the Narasirato Pan Pipers from the Solomon Islands.
2007 2007 Tok Pan Tok concert at Wolery House Concert
2006 Solo performance including self edited video, dvd, stories and music at Kulcha, Fremantle

Co-founded AC-PVC whose performances included:

Over two hundred performances and workshops as a musician with Chilli Con Cussion, Los Chasquis, the Sambanistas Trio De Janeiro, AC-PVC, Tok Pan Tok and Whak from 1987 to the present for the corporate sector, the general public, in schools and at festivals.


Producer

2010 CONTAINED exhibition by Cecile Williams as part of the Perth International Arts Festival.
2009 Narasirato Pan Pipers seven week Australian tour, including Byron Bluesfest, Melbourne Recital Centre, Brisbane Powerhouse and Port Fairy Festival.
2009 Recording of Narasirato Pan Pipers' second CD on Malaita Island and in David Bridie Studio, Melbourne.
2007 2007 Narasirato Pan Pipers tours to Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain
2006 Record, edit, mix and produce Narasirato Pan Pipers, from the Solomon Islands, first CD release titled Naratana Hiona (Cry of the Ancestors)


Creative Development

2007 Delegate to the Australian World Music Expo, Melbourne (self funded)
2006 Delegate to WOMEX international world music trade fair and conference in Seville, Spain

Workshops with film and documentary producer Jan Aird in Cairns, Queensland (self funded)

Lessons in video editing and dvd authoring to produce World Festival of Pan Pipe and Narasirato promotional packages. (The dvd/cd package for WFPP was sponsored by Mark Whitehouse at Pro Copy in Perth)

2005 Delegate to the annual Indigenous Tourism Conference (WAITOC) in Perth, Western Australia (self funded)
2000-2003 Two year fellowship awarded by the Australia Council for the Arts, to collaborate with musicians in Bolivia, Romania, Malawi and the Solomon Islands
1999 Asianlink exchange program to Hanoi Conservatory of Music, Vietnam, for three months
1998 ArtsWA development grant for Whak, with an electronics engineer, internet specialist, theatre director and video artist
1992 Western Australian Department for the Arts grant for pan-flute studies with renowned teacher Cornel Pana in Bucharest, Romania for five months
1990 Sidney Myer Foundation support for AC/PVC to refine and experiment further with its orchestra of original PVC instruments

Self Funded Studies

2005 DVD Studio Pro, professional dvd authoring software
2004 Final Cut Pro, professional film editing software
2004 Requalification of Senior First Aid certificate with St Johns Ambulance
1999 Requalification of Senior First Aid certificate with St Johns Ambulance

Requalification of Bronze Medallion with Royal Life Saving Society

1997 Indoor pyrotechnics course
1996 Drumming and percussion workshops with Ray Pereira in Adelaide, and with Utungun Percussion and Keith Casey at the Maleny Music Festival
1995 Cultural research in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania
1993 School of Audio Engineering Level 1 audio engineer
1991 Music and dance research in the Solomon Islands
1989 Cuban National School of Folklore to study Afro-Cuban percussion
1986 Spanish Language at Flinders University, Adelaide

Pan-flute studies at the Kjarkas School of Folklore in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Instrument making apprenticeship (pan-flute, flute, drums) to master instrument maker Juan Vera - La Paz, Bolivia


Recordings

Life Is Life Original recordings of the resultant collaborations with musicians in Bolivia, Romania and Malawi/Mozambique in 2003
Eyes of a Child Tok Pan Tok 2001 ( CD of original world music)
Woven Path 1999 (piece to accompany textile artist's work)
My Place To Be 1999 (collaboration with sculptor's public art installation)
Wurld Wurld 1997 (nine piece original world music band)
Darwin ABC Radio Whak 1990 (live to air)
Just A Slice Whak 1997 (original percussive music)
3 Hours In Canada Whak 1996 (original world/folk music)
Ma Fren Tok Pan Tok 1993 ( CD of original world music)
Perth ABC Radio Bizircus Big Band 1990 (live to air)
2 Dance Plus 1992 (soundtrack to three contemporary dance solos)
Perth ABC Radio Tok Pan Tok 1990 (live to air)
Sebastian and the Sparrow 1990 (solo recording of a partial film soundtrack)
Skin On Skin Marthas Vineyard 1989 (one song of a rock album)
Perth ABC Radio AC/PVC 1990 (live to air)
Underground Phenomenon AC/PVC 1989 (original PVC music)
Santiago To Perth Los Chasquis 1989 (South American music)

Filmmaking

2011 Mapoon Land and Sea Rangers (Cape York) - Documentary commissioned by the Rangers (9 mins)

Moondog J and Narasirato Pan Pipers short film of their performance of The Are'Are Blues at Byron Bluesfest (5 mins).

2010 Five Elements Tour - Documentary commissioned by Tura New Music of a tour by virtuoso Indian classical musicians and dancers, in collaboration with three of Australia's great jazz musicians, from Darwin to Perth (6 mins)

Repaired Log - Documentary of artist Cecile Williams' commission to build an ephemeral environmental artwork at the Northcliffe Sculpture Walk (5 mins)

Denmark Festival of Voice - Documentary of the processes and people involved in the festival.

2009 Documentary about the collaborative process, rehearsals and recording of The Pan People Project, in Malawi, Bolivia, Solomon Islands and Romania premiered at the Dreaming Festival in Queensland 2009 (92 mins)

Mane Paina (The Paramount Chief) filmed at the Melbourne Recital Centre performance of the Narasirato Pan Pipers, mixed with scenes from their remote village lifestyles on Malaita Island, Solomon Islands

CONTAINED - Documentary and booklet of artist Cecile Williams' process to make artworks from the flotsam and jetsam of Greta Beach, Christmas Island

2008 Documentation dvd of the process and performance for The Big Five O Project in Christmas Island (45 mins)

Kapow Theatre Project - documentary commissioned by Southern Edge Arts of the performance of Kapow.

2007 Documentary of the Narasirato Pan Pipers' tour of Australia (54 mins)

Quick films

2011 Kanga Jump - clandestine and quick film made about three young boys and their bmx jumping pursuits

Bustin A Move - Elijah Peppin and Amos Smith attend hip hop dance workshops.

2010 Sofa So Good - Dwayne Peppin creates an amphibious bike, from rubbish, for Brave New Works Festival and bravely launches it in front of a parochial home crowd

Dochomentary - a paper ball fight the night before leads into more silliness at the Denmark markets, carrying on a long history of raids on Anthony Docherty's woodwork artworks stall

Gondwana Rap - a quick film made with students from Denmark Primary School, composed, recorded, filmed in four hours


TV Documentaries

1994 SBS Sunday Arts - on Peter Keelan as a new instrument maker
1990 ABC 7.30 Report - on AC/PVC
1989 Channel 7 News - on AC/PVC

Current Affairs - on Channel 9 about AC/PVC

1988 Channel 10 Kids Company - a series presenting new musical instruments
1987 SBS Worldwide - a program on AC/PVC

Volunteer

2007 Producer of Narasirato Pan Pipers CD launch in Honiara and Oterama Village, Solomon Islands.
2005 Creating the Strategic and Operational Plan for producing the inaugural National and World Festival of Pan Pipe in the Solomon Islands. This has included high level government meetings and sourcing international funding support.
Organise fundraising events to help musicians in drought ridden Malawi, Africa
Mentor and support indigenous musician Peter Brandy, by organizing concerts, writing grant applications, etc.
Support person with Narasirato Pan Pipers at Queensland Music Festival.





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