Mary O'Keeffe
Harpsichord
B.M. (McGill)
M.Mus. (Mc.Gill)
M.A. (Toronto)
Mary O'Keeffe leads an active career as a harpsichordist in Newfoundland. She has played with the NSO Sinfonia and presented solo and chamber music recitals with local musicians. She has been broadcast on CBC Radio locally (Musicraft) and nationally (Two New Hours). Mary enjoys early music and new music for the harpsichord and premiered Plugged 1.2 for amplified harpsichord by Jérôme Blais during Sound Symposium 2002. This work was broadcast on CBC Radio’s Two New Hours. She also commissioned a new work for harpsichord and marimba by Newfoundland composer Jennifer O’Neill. This work, In Dreams I Dance on Shale, was performed with percussionist Phil Yetman during Sound Symposium 2006 and subsequently broadcast, along with works for harpsichord by Jean Lesage and Gyorgy Ligeti, on Two New Hours. This work was also featured, with music for harpsichord by Jean Lesage, on The Signal (CBC Radio Two).
Mary O’Keeffe obtained a Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance (Piano) and a Masters Degree in Performance (Harpsichord) from McGill, where she studied with Hank Knox and Luc Beauséjour. During the course of her M. Mus. studies, she completed a research project on harpsichord music in Canada since 1950, and compiled a catalogue of solo contemporary works for this instrument. She also has an M.A. in musicology from the University of Toronto.
She has taught at the University of Toronto, Bishop’s University and is now an instructor at Memorial University’s School of Music.
As an administrator, Mary O'Keeffe was General Manager of the Orchestre de chambre de l'Estrie and the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra for many years. She subsequently worked for Codes d’accès, a new music collective, and for the Montreal Chamber Music Festival. She was also General Manager for the inaugural edition of the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival which took place in St. John’s in August 2001. Mary O’Keeffe was Operations Manager of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2007. With flutist Michelle Cheramy and cellist Nathan Cook, she has recently founded the Hot Earth Ensemble, a group dedicated primarily to presenting concerts of music of the 17th and 18th centuries.