Welcome to the official web site of Grammy and multiple Emmy Award winning composer Brian Keane.
Multiple Emmy award winning composer, Grammy award winning producer, and noted guitarist Brian Keane has scored literally hundreds of films and television shows, and produced over 150 albums, mostly from his studio in the woods of Connecticut. His music has been hailed critically as "indelible and breathtaking" by the Los Angeles Times, "piercingly beautiful" by The New York Times and "masterful" by Newsweek, and he has been called a "musician's musician" by Downbeat, a "composer's composer" by The Hollywood Reporter, and “one of the most impressive musicians of the decade” by the editor of Billboard magazine.
Among Brian’s many enduring credits are “New York” the epic, multiple Emmy winning Burns documentary series that is among the biggest selling documentaries of all time, “Long Journey Home” which won a Grammy for its soundtrack in collaboration with The Chieftains, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Sinead O’Connor, and others, the classic “Winter’s Solstice” record series for Windham Hill which he produced, and his ground breaking ethnic recordings with middle eastern musician Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Irish musician Joanie Madden, and many others.
After taking all of 2025 to record three symphony projects around the world, Brian started January of 2026 making a video to his 1984 symphony, “A Speck In Time” with Emmy-winning editor Paul Carruthers, and partner Bonnie Erickson.
Brian returned to the studio in February to finish a project with long time Middle Eastern musical partner, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, including the original band from their ground breaking 1992 hit album, “Beyond The Sky”, with Armenian percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan, master oud player Ara Dinkjian, and kanun firebrand, Hasan Isakkut, along with a symphony orchestra assembled from the top players in New York, and including guests like Paul Simon’s Lebanese percussionist, Jamey Haddad, kanun phenom, Tamer Pinarbasi, German New Age superstar singer Deva Premal, spiritual singer Aureliaslight, bassist Leo Huppert, Los Angeles drummer Chris Wabich, and Omar’s son Murat Tekbilek. "A Middle Eastern Symphony" is Brian and Omar's first collaborative record together since the 2009 soundtrack to the Turkish feature film “Kelebek”. Brian and Omar have performed live since, selling out Carnegie Hall together in 2018, and a European and Middle Eastern tour in 2019, but covid came, along with other projects. Omar and Brian have finally made a long-awaited reunion record together that will come out in 2027. Their original collaboration, on the 1987 soundtrack to "Suleyman the Magnificent”, enjoyed millions of streams last year, and their classic duo records “Fire Dance” and “Beyond the Sky” continue to soar to this day.
Brian scored the music to the iconic, Emmy-winning Ric Burns' history of New York, “New York: A Documentary Film” which debuted in 1999, and 2001, to critical acclaim and well over 60 million viewers. Valley Entertainment released a ten volume complete soundtrack that began streaming in September of 2026 with the release of two brand new episodes of "New York: A Documentary Film”, (episode 9 “Shadows of the Past”, and episode 10 “The Future of Cities”). The main theme, “City of Dreams”, which had lyrics added to it by Marilyn and Alan Bergman (“The Way We Were”, and “How Do You Keep The Music Playing”) at the request of the late Tony Bennett in 2001, was recorded by legendary singer Melba Moore for the soundtrack, which also features jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut, saxophonist Lawrence Feldman, and many of the top musicians in New York.
Brian also scored “The Vanishing Song”, a film about gibbons in Malaysia, and a tribute to the work of naturalist Jane Goodall. Brian scored the music to the original chimps movie that helped make Jane Goodall famous in the 1980s. Jane was working with Oscar winning Hong Kong director Ruby Yang on "The Vanishing Song" last year when she passed away. Brian also scored Ruby Yang’s Oscar winning film, and she asked Brian to score "The Vanishing Song" which just finished its run at New York’s IFC theater for Oscar consideration. Brian was able to work Bansuri master Steve Gorn into the score, along with a small string section which included cellist Daniel Barrett.
Daniel Barrett's new release "La cetoine qui dort dans le coeur de la rose" on New Focus Records, was produced by Brian in 2025, but released in 2026. It is a modern music recording of compositions by Dominique Lemaitre, featuring Dan's incredible cello musicianship. Dan is accompanied by some of the finest contemporary musicians, including pianists Taka Kigawa and Jed Distler, violinists Suliman Tekalli and Nikita Yermak (who also doubles on viola for this recording), and clarinetist Michiyo Suzuki.
The recording is stunning in its virtuosity, the musicians listening as carefully as they play, shattering expectations with their virtuosity.
Brian also contributed music to a three-part experimental television pilot of a reality TV/political documentary about the polarization in American politics called “Bridging the Gap”, by Los Angeles-based director Dave Rosenberg.
On a sad note, after working on 2023’s “Bebop Headbangers From Outer Space”, and Brian's symphony "A Speck In Time" last year, world renowned drummer Rodney Holmes (whose credits include Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, the Brecker Brothers, and others), passed away from cancer.
Please enjoy this streaming link (click on image below) to DANTE Inferno to Paradise Part 2: Resurrection, the full soundtrack album, and feel free to share it with your friends!
button below to listen to a Brian Keane music sampler
