Keith Gates is a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he is on the faculty at McNeese State University as professor of composition, music Theory, and piano. Gates began serious musical studies in composition as a high school student at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After receiving his high school diploma from NCSA, and attending two years of college there, he attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where he earned his BM and MM degrees. His composition teachers included Vincent Persichetti and Hugo Weisgall. While attending the Juilliard School, Gates received the Irving Berlin Teaching Fellowship for two consecutive years, and the Lado Prize for string writing.
Keith Gates has written in all genres including symphonies, concerti, works for band, and wind ensemble, choral music, chamber works, and opera. His second opera, Migle and the Bugs, has been performed in Siena, Italy, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York. In 1984, he was commissioned by the Louisiana Governor's Program for Gifted Children to write the opera Tom Sawyer which was premiered at McNeese as a two act opera, and subsequently in 1989 in the revised three act version as part of McNeese's Gala 50th Anniversary concert season. Gates received Shearman Research Grants and Calcasieu Arts and Humanities Grants for the opera The Hollow (1988), and Evangeline (1996).
Keith Gates has received many commissions, including a clarinet sonata, a viola concerto, a flute concerto, choral works, and band works commissioned by high school, univeristy, and military bands. He has been featured as guest artist/composer at the University of Central Arkansas, Butler University, the University of Southeastern Louisiana, and Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Louisiana Artist Fellowship, the Louisiana Music Teachers Association Commission Award, the Shearman Research Grant, the Fanfare Festival Composition Award, the National Flute Association Newly Published Music Award, and the Shearman Fine Arts Endowed Professorship (McNeese). He was recently named Artist of the Year for 1996 by the Calcasieu Arts and Humanities Council. The Lake Charles Symphony premiered his Symphony No. 2 on October 19, 1997, and his cd The Flute Music of Keith Gates, also featuring McNeese State University's flute professor, Judy Hand, is available, by contacting Gates.
Gates' Concerto for Flute was premiered in February 2000 by Brtish flutist Susan Milan.Other new works for flute include a new Sonata for Flute and Piano, premiered at McNeese State University performed by Dr. Judy Hand, flute. Recently his latest opera was premiered, The Christmas Coin, based on a Scandinavian story by Nora Burglon. It was commissioned by the governor's Program for Gifted Children. Gates was also awarded the 2001 Louisiana Artist Fellowship Grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
In addition to composing, Gates enjoys acting and singing. He has performed the role of Mozart in Amadeus Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, the pirate king in The Pirates of Penznace,, and Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,. He is also organist and choir director at Bethel Presbyterian Church, and Temple Sinai in Lake Charles.
For further information about Gates' music and cds,
email Gates.
9 June 2004