​Tell us about your tour! How long are you in the U.S. and where else are you going?

I have a workshop of a brand new piano duet composition "Outback Sonata for 2 Pianos" with high profile pianist Shannon Wettstein on April 15th, and I will be teaching at Saint Cloud State University on Monday, April 17. Then I head to New York for a solo show at Williamsburg Music Centre in Brooklyn, Live Jams at The Smooth Spot Studio and Studio #305, and a solo show at the Downtown Music Gallery. Details are on my website: www.keynawilkins.com and social media. 

Your music spans a wide range of topics and genres, and your solo shows include both composed works and stream-of-conciousness improvisations on both flute and piano. How do you go about combining all of these elements into a cohesive set?

That is a really great question! I think what links it all together is the fact that I hope I am able to merge all the styles into a hybrid so that it does all fit together in one big journey, with broad strokes of jazz, art music and contemporary classical as well as some experimental material. My music background is eclectic, but at the end of the day it's all music and it's all expression, and it all comes from me, so that must be a common thread. It begins and ends with outer space, with a bit of humanity and philosophy thrown in the middle, in a cosmic way.

Along those same lines, how do you find that the various aspects of your musical career influence or inform one another?

I was classically trained in UK, Australia and Germany on flute and piano. But I found that this approach was rather limiting for me. I got lessons in free improvisation from a Tibetan Buddhist monk  when I was 19 years old, and this definitely inspired me to a new path of using improvisation as a catalyst for compositional ideas,  and as a tool used in performances. What you will hear in my show is a range of stylistic features in the same piece, a hint of flamenco, Debussy, alongside contemporary jazz. 

How do you hope the audience feels after seeing your show, or what do you want them to take away from it? 

Firstly I want to create a space where people feel taken out of their daily lives, even for a moment, and be taken on an expressionistic journey. I also hope to raise awareness of issues around refugee rights around the world, and help people see connections between all things in a cosmic way. 

In 2019, I was getting tired of using musical computer programs. I didn’t know how to add the kinds of information that I wanted, and didn’t have the patience to dig into the tech aspect. I needed less screen time, not more! 

My cellist friend Aaron Kerr just started writing his scores by hand on very large paper, drawing the staves and notes. It was a return to the masters, who until very recently, wrote by hand. “Cool!” I thought. 

I started by creating staff paper by cut and paste, using the spaces on the page to have little motifs. I then copied them onto stiff cardstock. This worked perfectly for what I wanted--scores that had little motifs spread around the page that musicians could explore and develop. It wasn’t long before I started to add extra musical symbols to interpret. These were mostly in colored pen and pencils. I added some sketches, and started putting a lot of information on the page, so that musicians could choose from a wider palette. Carei Thomas said “Yeah! This is a great path! Take it!” 

Studio Z presents a concert of visual/intuitive scores by Todd Harper performed by the composer and special guests Michelle Kinney, cello; Laura Harada, violin; Garrett McQueen, bassoon; and Heather Barringer, percussion. ​

​​This concert is produced as part of "Studio Z Presents," a new concert series curated by musicians in our community, thanks to a grant from the City of Saint Paul STAR Program. ​