Keely is a rarity: as a four decades long cellist, she has developed a unique voice, as she speaks through her cello. She composes and performs solo on electroacoustic cello or her 6 string electric cello, with live looping and effects, creating a virtual cello orchestra. She publicly emerged as Celloquacious in 2019, and soon after, Keely was honored to win (and perform for the ceremony for) the 2020 New Mexico Music Awards for her song, Out at Sea, in the Ambient Contemporary Instrumental category. Keely is also a double finalist for the 2023 and 2024 NMMA. In both 2021 and 2023, Keely was recognized as a  Semi-Finalist in the Instrumental Category in the International Songwriting Competition (the largest songwriting competition in the world).

 

Celloquacious is an artistic and musical concept, of a composer and performer communicating through her cello, and her music is inspired by the elements of Nature: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether. Keely states, “when the music comes through me, there are no words, only images of sound”. Celloquacious has three aspirations: to connect with and move people through the musical language of the cello, to collaborate and community build through the arts, and to positively contribute  a spirit of healing to the larger community.
 

Since the age of nine, Keely has been playing cello, which she studied at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Keely plays from the heart, and this has been felt by listeners, over the decades of her playing. At first, strictly a classically trained cellist, during Visual Arts studies as an undergrad, Keely began improvising, performing, and recording with indie alternative rock bands, and creating immersive interdisciplinary art. She has also explored the genres of jazz, soul, funk, experimental, and Kirtan, yet Classical training and performance pervades. Over the past decade, Keely has been extending her use of electric and acoustic amplified cello, as well as integrating looping and effects pedals into creating her own original solo pieces. Her music is from "futuristic antiquity", where sounds of antiquity from her classical cello, merge with futuristic sounds, through her amplified acoustic cello or her new 6 string electric cello, which she processes through a BOSS ME 70, utilizing looping and effects, and as a result, she creates “musical soulscapes”.

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In addition to doing her own solo work as Celloquacious, Keely continues to collaborate with other musicians, dancers and performing artists and organizations. She joined with international award winning pianist and composer, Elizabeth Garland, to create Delphi Project in March of 2019. Keely wrote the story, When the Veil Thins, to help people process loss and honor their ancestors. It is an annual avant-garde Delphi Project performance with additional musicians, movement artists and visuals. Additionally, Keely continues to collaborate with musicians locally and around the globe, and recently was accepted as part of NYCEMF 2021, the largest electroacoustic music festival in the world, with composer and musician, Madyar Ghazinejad, from Iran.

 

As an interdisciplinary artist. Keely is excited to have been awarded a 2022-2023 UETF (Urban Enhancement Trust Fund) Grant through the City of Albuquerque, to work through FUSION Theatre, to bring Albuquerque and beyond a new album, music videos, a macrophotography show, macrophotography workshops, and performances: integrating her music and visual images with choreographed movement of professional dancers. Keely is also featured in a mini-documentary, one of 10 grant recipients of the 100, to explain how her art and music projects are developing through the support of the grant. Ultimately, Keely hopes that her music will help people and the environment heal. More recently, Keely has been immersing herself in experimental theatre and music, as she has collaborated with performance artist, Kristine Maltrud, CEO of ArtSpark, and with Sandbox Music founders in Santa Fe.

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Keely is excited to be awarded as one of six recipients for Albuquerque's Hear Here Festival, a grant and artist residency funded by the City of Albuquerque's Department of Arts and Culture, taking place at Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts in March and April of 2024.