Kelley Sheehan is a composer and electronic musician moving between electro-acoustic, multimedia, and performance art works.
Her work has been described as "full of discovery, collaboration, and unpredictability” (Iannotta, Kyriakides, & Stäbler) and “shatteringly visceral" (VAN Magazine, ty bouque).
In any medium, her work constructs environments meant to merge electronic and acoustic forces into one composite organism, dependent on this merging to become more than just an extension of itself. Her work focuses on sculpting noise, shifting materiality, housing structures, and machinery.
Named prize winner of the Gaudeamus Award 2019, laureate of the 2025 IMPULS Composition Competition, awardee of a 2022 Hildegard Commission, recipient of a 2023 Barlow Endowment Commission, awarded first place for the 2020 ASCAP/SEAMUS commissioning competition, the 2023 John Green Prize, and given honorable mention at the 2023 Darmstadt Summer Courses, among others.
When not composing, she’s an avid improviser on self-made DIY electronics, no-input mixer, her AI-electric guitar hybrid called ‘other machines,’ or modular. Having performed at festivals such as the impuls international music festival and at such venues as the Banff Center for the Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Goethe Institute of Boston.
As of Fall 2025, she is Assistant Professor in Music Composition and Technology at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music. Previously, Kelley taught at the Smith Music Department as a Post Doc in Music Technology (2023-25). She obtained her PhD in Music Composition from Harvard University having studied with Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku.
Select Writings/Press (for more visit Texts):
Portrait Heads will Roll: the music of Kelley Sheehan. Ty Bouque. Van Magazine.
constructing nerves, awakening machines [PhD Diss] (minus scores referenced)
In the beginning there was Silence (EN) neue zeitschrift für musik magazine
on Collaborating Winnie Huang and Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn
Best of bandcamp review (new ears selected) Peter Margasak
noise, perception, and interaction. David Leone. Musica Kaleidoskopea
Contact for press materials, edited bio versions for publishing and/or programs, for information on
ordering scores, parts, tape, and recordings, or for other
performance-related issues. If programming, then please contact with
details on where/when, etc.
Downloadable Headshot are linked here
(please use the above link to download photos for use as
they are much better quality and list photo credits)