Charlotte Keeffe

Charlotte Keeffe is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and freely improvising musician exploring the intersection of composition, improvisation and sonic experimentation. Inspired by abstract painting, she treats her trumpets as Sound Brushes, embracing unconventional sounds and dissolving boundaries between musician/​composer and audience. 

Her music/​performances move between delicacy and intensity, structure and spontaneity, intentionally making and embracing distorted shrieks, fractured tones and splattered sounds. Through fluid compositions, playful approaches and invitational scores, Keeffe creates space for musicians and audiences to shape each performance/​music in real time ~ Creative Freedom For All.

Her debut album, Right Here, Right Now (Discus Music, 2021), established her as a distinctive voice in the UK and international avant-garde scenes; this is followed by ALIVE! (Discus Music, 2023), and Circles (Discus Music, 2027), featuring her evolving practice with her RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW ensemble of Ashley John Long, Ben Handysides and Moss Freed. Keeffe tours internationally, and has performed at prestigious festivals including Germany’s Jazzfest Berlin, Moers Festival, MMI Festival in Munich, and the USA’s Festival of New Trumpet Music, as well as Mexico’s Festival Internacional Cervantino and more. 

A passionate advocate for social change through music, Keeffe is part of the award-winning Women in Jazz Media team and involved with Mopomoso, the UK’s longest-running freely improvising music series. Through Orchestra New and Noisy Women Present, she champions collaboration, diversity and underrepresented voices. As a Director of MJAZZ, she promotes jazz and improvisation across the East Midlands. 

Her collaborations span a diverse range of musical worlds, including Marin Alsop’s Taki Concordia Orchestra, the London Jazz Composers Orchestra playing with Barry Guy, Stephen Haynes’ Knuckleball, and with artists such as Marilyn Crispell, Evan Parker, Maggie Nicols, Alexander Hawkins, Mats Gustafsson, Phil Minton, Julie Tippetts and Paul Dunmall, as well as Sonic Youth co-founder Thurston Moore and comedian Stewart Lee.