Keith Kirk

BIO

Keith Kirk has enjoyed a prodigious career in music as a songwriter, music producer and music business professional. After completing College in London Keith with a number of organisations in the music industry. His tenure with the London Chorale saw him work with the BBC on numerous occasions both TV and Radio. Notable performances include the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Concert (with President Bill Clinton as guest speaker) at Blenheim Palace, Commonwealth Day Service Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle and most notably for HRH the Queen for the Golden Jubilee Celebrations Prom at the Palace Concerts at Buckingham Palace in 2002 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with conductor Sir Andrew Davis. Other engagements include touring with world renowned trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz Orchestra with conductor laureate Kurt Masur, Alexandra Burke, Leslie Garrett, Mavis Staples, Chris De Burgh, Beverly Knight the Kodaly institute, Eaton College, Whitehall, Songs of Praise’ The Big Sing with the Advent Vocal Ensemble (AVE)

Keith has penned a number of compositions that are published by GIA Publications, America’s largest sacred music publisher. One of his compositions (a sacred extroit) was published in the new version of the African American Heritage Hymnal which has sold over 250,000 copies worldwide released in 2018. He recently collaborated on a new piece for the Choir of the world awardee, the Oakwood Aeolians (World Choir Awardees) with his childhood friend Dr Jason Max Ferdinand (Chair, Oakwood University Music Dept, conductor of the world awardee) and Stephen Murphy (former Aeolians). In 2017 two of Keith’s pieces were recorded by The Promise; an ensemble based at the Avondale College, Australia and the Miami Union Academy Choir, a secondary school choir based in Miami, USA.

Keith however, has a deep passion for the music business and helping musicians, singers and creatives navigate the complex and ever-changing landscape of the industry. Keith has worked for some of the largest music and media companies in the world as a metadata analyst including Sony Music Entertainment UK, Universal Music Group, BMG, 21st Century Fox and the International Copyright Enterprise in Berlin, Germany (a collecting society hub simplifying digital licensing and improving the efficiency of processing streaming data and royalties). He is passionate about the on-going process of streamlining music data to increase efficiency and accuracy in payment to rights holders as well as the ever-increasing need to capture meaningful data which has become more critical within recent years with the phenomenon of streaming and OTT services. He is passionate about helping indie artists develop and structure a robust metadata strategy which aids in owning and controlling their digital space.

In November and December of 2017 over a period of 3 days at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios in London, Keith, along with 25 other session vocalists recorded the entire vocal underscore for the hugely successful Marvel feature film Black Panther with original score by Ludwig Goransson and directed by Ryan Coogler, staring Chadwick Boseman. Keith holds a Bachelors of Music from the University of Hertfordshire and a Masters in Music Business Management from the University of Westminster. He occasionally speaks at music industry panels and delivers music business presentations.