Dr. Brenda Keen
PIANO, VOICE
Ph D., M. A., B. S.
Dr. Brenda Keen received her training under the faculty of Bob Jones University where she studied piano under Dr. Mark Parker and earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education in 1981. She went on to earn a Master of Arts in Elementary Education degree in 1991, and a Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction degree with educational emphasis in the fields of choral music and theology in 1998. She has also studied vocal technique with Myrna Reynolds, Susan Nardinly, and Chai Lun Yeah of the Hartt School of Music. She has sung for seven years with the Hartford Chorale, including solo roles, under the direction of Henley Denmeade and been a member of the Hartt Chamber singers at Hartt School under the director Dr. Gerald Mack.
Dr. Keen has over 35 years teaching experience and has taught and directed a variety of choral groups and soloists who have competed and won statewide and national honors. Dr. Keen has also served as a choral clinician and adjudicator for statewide competitions in Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. She was invited to be a guest choir director for the Northeast Regional Choir Festival in Connecticut and has been a speaker with the Majesty Music College in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Dr. Keen has taught on the faculty of New England Baptist College as a voice and piano instructor as well as the College Choir conductor. In 2006, she founded the New England Girls’ Choir and directed them in performances in historic churches and cathedrals throughout New England, and in such venues as the historic Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Notre Dame and La Madeleine Cathedrals in Paris, France, St.Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, and the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. Dr. Keen has maintained a private voice and piano studio during her years in Connecticut. She was married to the late Ralph S. Keen and has two adult children.
