TIM KIAH
Multifaceted musician and composer TIM KIAH incorporates a broad spectrum of styles and approaches to his music. He was recently awarded the City Artist Corps Grant by the New York Foundation of the Arts.
From solo pieces and songs to symphonic works, Kiah’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and premiered for a variety of audiences at many different venues, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Blue Note, and Joe’s Pub. He has been commissioned by organizations such as Chamber Music America and Lincoln Center Theatre, and he is a composer and member of the Chelsea Symphony in New York City where he lives.
As a bass player and singer, Kiah performs in many genres of music. His projects blend elements of classical, jazz, Americana, and folk. He has recorded and performed with Deborah Harry, Lenny Kravitz, Jerry Douglas and Andy Statman. Kiah is also the founder of the Endangered Quartet, comprised of legendary saxophonist and poet Roy Nathanson, trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, and Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills. The quartet has performed at BargeMusic and Poisson Rouge among many other venues. Kiah is a member of Sotto Voce, a quintet led by Nathanson, which has toured internationally performing at European festivals including Banlieu Blues in Paris and Wilisau in Switzerland. Sotto Voce has been featured on NPR, the BBC, NDR, and Sirius XM.
He is also a member of an ensemble in residence at Carnegie Hall called Moving Star. The group performed virtual concerts and presented live vocal collaborations during the coronavirus pandemic. Kiah wrote and composed Distance, a piece about hope during the pandemic. Moving Star creates original music infused with a wide variety of improvisation techniques.
Kiah’s musical journey began at the Boston Boy Choir School, where he performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. While with the Boston Boy Choir, he also had the opportunity to work with Leonard Bernstein. Kiah attended the Eastman School of Music where he studied performance and composition. While at Eastman, he started his professional career as a bassist performing with trumpetist Ralph Alessi and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. He earned his MFA from City College where he studied with world-renowned bassist Ron Carter and composer David Del Tredici.
In 2002, Kiah founded Nurse Kaya, an ensemble inspired by the healing nature of music and his background as a registered nurse (Kiah received a BSN in nursing from the University of Rochester while studying music at Eastman). The group consisted of a string quartet from the Juilliard school with bass and percussion. Nurse Kaya was awarded grants from ASCAP. Nurse Kaya performed in venues ranging from concert halls to hospitals and prisons as part of the group’s mission to bring world class music to diverse audiences.
As an educator, Kiah works with all age levels. He is a board member, musician, and conductor of Jazz Passengers Music Projects, a program that enriches students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds with music and poetry. JPMP has conducted performances during the pandemic in Brooklyn. It has also produced performances in many cities, including Paris, Munich, Newcastle, Detroit, and New York. Kiah has also conducted composition and improvisation workshops at the university level at institutions such as Bennington University and City College. He has also led workshops for string orchestras for high school music festivals in the New York area. Kiah has been a faculty member of the Brooklyn Music School, where he has been a prominent member of the outreach program since 2015, teaching at the elementary and middle school level under the pseudonym “Mr. Timothy.”
CURRENT PROJECTS
Coming Soon
SELECTED MEDIA
L'île déserte (2020)
Jesse Mills, violin
Rieko Aizawa, piano
Distance (2021)
Morning Star