Cellist and composer Zoë Keating is a one-woman orchestra. She uses a cello and a foot-controlled laptop to record layer upon layer of cello, creating intricate, haunting, and compelling music. Zoë is known for both her use of technology—which she uses to sample her cello onstage—and for her DIY approach, releasing her music online without the help of a record label.
A cellist since the age of eight, Keating pursued electronic music and contemporary composition as part of her liberal arts studies at Sarah Lawrence College. After graduation, she moved to San Francisco. Keating eventually combined her love of music and technology, using a computer to live-layer her cello and perform for late-night crowds in her San Francisco warehome. Now, she has a devoted, global audience. Her self-released albums have several times reached #1 on the iTunes classical chart, she has over 1 million followers on Twitter, and her grassroots approach and artists' advocacy has garnered much public attention and press. She serves as a governor for the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She is a trustee of the World Economic Forum's Future of the Internet Initiative.
In 2014, she began composing for television, working on the scores for the A&E series The Returned and for Manhattan, a drama about the making of the atomic bomb. She is currently writing music for a pilot on Showtime.