Keith Dippre

Dr. Keith Dippre was born in Ancon, Panama in 1960. He received his undergraduate degree from Azusa Pacific University in California and his M.A. from California State University at Los Angeles. For roughly eight years, prior to beginning doctoral studies in composition at Ohio State, he played the resort and nightclub circuit on the west coast and was a multi-keyboardist in the hip-hop oriented "Raw Nature." While living in California, he had the privilege of opening concerts for artists such as Debbie Gibson and doing studio work with popular jazz saxophonist Boney James. While at Ohio State, Dippre was the recipient of the Ruth Friscoe award for composition (1998) and was Composer-in-Residence with the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra (1999). He made his festival debut as accordionist in OSU's Contemporary Music Festival 2001 playing the Lucas Foss piece "Curriculum Vitae with Time Bomb." He also produced a piano concerto entitled "700 N. Electric," and a document, "Compositional Issues with Corigliano, Oliveros, and Kernis." His principal composition teachers have been Dr. Phil Shackleton, Dr. Byong-kon Kim, and Dr. Jan Radzynski.

He is currently the Department Chairman and Professor of Music at Methodist University, teaching such courses as music theory, aural skills, and composition. Dr. Dippre also received a Regional Artist Project Grant from the Arts Council of Fayetteville and Cumberland County and was an artist-in-residence at the Artist's Enclave at I-Park (East Haddam, Connecticut). In October of 2003 his piece "Pilgrim's Blues" (for piano, violin, and cowbell) premiered in Northampton, Massachusetts commemorating the tercentenary celebration of Jonathan Edwards. He has been recently featured in the SCI National Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his work "California Low Brow" and was also commissioned by Duo 46 in 2008 for his "Year of the Rat" piece for guitar and violin. He has had commissions and performances with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, and his current publisher is Imagine Music (Medina, New York).

On his recent sabbatical from Methodist University, he took part in the Fresno New Music Festival and was a guest lecturer at Azusa Pacific University.