Keith Harrison

Keith Harrison is a nationally recognized live-performer, music director, composer, orchestrator and songwriter. His work in Chicago Theatre made him a two-time Joseph Jefferson Award-Winner (The Boys From Syracuse and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and he was nominated five other times.

He grew up in Springfield, NJ, the child of a pro-bono lawyer who once received payment from a client in the form of a Spinet piano. It quickly became 3-year-old Keith’s best friend. He continued to play and study music all through his childhood, taking up the clarinet seriously, and discovering his ear for perfect pitch.

He began to study as many instruments as he could get his hands on. He went to various summer music camps and later starred in all the school musicals. After college at Northwestern University, where he penned songs for various student musicals and began writing on his own, he produced his first album. With a little help from his friends and family, he recorded it.

As a pianist and orchestrator, he worked with Lauren Kennedy on her CD release concert (Here and Now); Dennis DeYoung (Styx) on Hunchback; and with Tony® Award-Winners Heather Headley and Levi Kreis.

As a stage performer, he’s been seen at Chicago’s famed Goodman Theatre and Apollo Theater. In 2010, he completed a stint with the Chicago company of the Tony®-nominated Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet, playing rock n’ roller Jerry Lee Lewis.

During his performance of the Lewis role, Keith suffered a vocal injury due to singing while sick. His voice was gone, and he had to undergo surgery on his larynx. Soon after, he began speech therapy, relearning how to craft sounds and sing again. He devoted himself to cultivating a healthier lifestyle, and, within a few months, his voice was stronger than before. He attributes his remarkable recovery to a plant-based diet, which he now actively advocates.

His compositions have been heard on television and radio alongside major brands, including McDonald's and Allstate. He developed the electronic music for the controversial new musical White Noise, produced by Whoopi Goldberg, and produced the score for the EMMY-nominated anti-bullying PSA Campaign "STARS Nashville".

Keith is a prolific singer-songwriter whose crossover album, Side A, can be found on iTunes, along with his politico-satire single Bla-Go, which won the Chicago RedEye's Blagojevich songwriting contest in 2009. He also traveled to the Gulf of Mexico to shoot a music video for his original song “Tomorrow May Not Come” about the tragic impact of the BP Oil spill.

An accomplished sound engineer, he produces all of his own recordings in his home studio. He also records for various labels, including CMH, which released his cover of Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are” in 2010.

His singular vocal and musical style is reminiscent of artists as varied as Gavin DeGraw, Maroon 5, and John Legend. With a soulful sound and pop sensibility, Keith has toured venues like The House of Blues, The Mint and the Viper Room. His newest EP, Play The Game, was released in May 2011. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, and lives with his wife, Laura, in Los Angeles, California. Find out more at www.keithmakesmusic.com.