Keith Otis Edwards

Keith is a prolific composer and arranger writing music for concert band, full orchestra and a large number of hybrid ensembles. His early inspiration came from attending outdoor performances given by the Detroit Concert Band under the baton of the late Leonard B. Smith. These concerts, with their varied and inspirational programming and often ending in a stirring performance of Sousa’s ‘Stars & Stripes Forever’, were electrifying and the audience would cheer themselves hoarse as their children and dogs would run around wildly. An image he carries with him to this day.

Drawing inspiration from those early experiences Keith is keen that concerts should have an exhilarating effect on their audiences and “need genuine band music of the rousing tradition”; it is his goal to write such music and provide the material to realise his ambition that his scores should provide the vehicle for band directors to recreate the showmanship and panache of those former years.

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