Biography

Kiran Steele (he/him) is a percussionist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Kiran began playing drum kit in 2013 and studied with Al Resk from 2013-2020. He then studied classical percussion with Dr. Joël Cormier from 2020-2024 and Richard Burrows from 2024-2026. He has also worked with the members of Architek Percussion, TorQ Percussion, and SIXTRUM Percussion. Through his studies, Kiran has presented multiple solo recitals and performed for various organizations. These organizations include the Barachois Summer Music Festival, Jeunesses Musicales Nouveau Brunswick, the Scotia Festival of Music, Nashville Marimba Sessions, the Orford Music Academy, Marimbafest Australia, the World Percussion Group, and The Space Between conference (Canadian Percussion Network).

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Outside of performance, Kiran is an avid composer and musicologist. He has performed his compositions across Canada and Europe and continues to explore different avenues for musical expression in percussion. As a musicologist, his research focuses on the percussion music of composers of colour. In addition, Kiran participated in the research lab “Challenging Embedded Colonial Narratives” (2021-2023), headed by Drs. Margaret Walker, Linda Pearse, and Sandra P. Bouliane. Kiran’s work for this project afforded him the opportunity to give several undergraduate musicology lectures between 2022-2024. He also travelled to Québec City in May 2023 to present the lab’s research in the MUSCan Dialogues Conference.

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Kiran holds a BMus degree from Mount Allison University and a MMus in Performance degree from Western University.

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Download Kiran's medium and short biographies here