Ryan Key grew up in rural Arkansas, enthralled by the emotionally powerful scores of cinematic blockbusters and wondering, “Why do I feel this way? How can I recreate it?” Channeling this early interest in film music, he began writing miniatures for piano, then larger-scale music for his local school bands. He studied at the University of Arkansas (BM) with Dr. Robert Mueller, the University of Sussex, and Mannes School of Music (MM) with Missy Mazzoli and David Little.
Ryan’s music is often inspired as companion or commentary tp other art, be it visual, musical, cinematic, literary. Expansion Ethics, a response to Bruce Nauman’s MoMA retrospective, won Queer Urban Orchestra’s 2019 Composition Contest and was selected for Mannes Orchestra’s annual readings. Stolen Goods, a work for solo violin premiered at the legendary Carnegie Hall, borrows and expands ideas from Bach’s G minor Sonata. A New Yorker short story by Yiyun Li inspired the sextet finger to flame.
While working a day job in tech, Ryan continues to compose and write. He can also be found performing as a saxophonist with the Brooklyn Wind Ensemble. An inveterate bagel fanatic, he lives in Downtown Brooklyn consuming copious amounts of coffee and score reading his way through the Third Symphonies of composers well- and unknown.
