Zoë Keating

A cellist since the age of eight, Keating pursued electronic music and contemporary composition as part of her Liberal Arts studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. After graduation she moved to San Francisco and built a career as an information architect and data analyst while moonlighting as a cellist in rock bands. Keating eventually combined her love of music and technology, using a computer to live-layer her cello and performing for late-night after-parties in her San Francisco warehouse.
She is known for both her use of technology - which she uses to sample her cello onstage - and for her DIY approach, releasing her music online without the help of a record label.

Keating composes for TV, theater, film and dance. She composed, along with collaborator Jeff Russo, scores for the A&E series ""The Returned"" and for WGN's ""Manhattan"", a drama about the making of the atomic bomb. Her songs are used as bumper music for NPR’s Morning Edition, as the theme music to OnBeing, as the thinking-music of the Sherlock Holmes character on CBS Elementary and in countless films, commercials, TV shows and documentaries.

A vocal advocate for the rights of artists and creators, Keating writes and speaks often about copyright and the mechanics of the music industry economy. She was elected a governor of the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy, named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served as a boardmember of CASH Music, a nonprofit organization that built open source digital tools for musicians and labels.

As a cellist Zoë has played with a wide range of artists, including Imogen Heap, Amanda Palmer, Guy Sigsworth, Tears for Fears, DJ Shadow, Dan Hicks, Thomas Dolby, Sean Ono Lennon, John Vanderslice, Rasputina, Pomplamoose and Paolo Nutini.

In 2017 Zoë moved to Burlington, Vermont. Her latest recording, a four song EP called ""Snowmelt"", was released in 2018 and spent 10 weeks on the Billboard Classical Charts. She is currently working on another album."