P. Kellach Waddle, Composer

Biography

P. Kellach Waddle maintains a lauded and extraordinarily active
career as a solo bassist, composer, orchestral and chamber musician,
conductor, concert curator, and writer. He has been hailed as one of
the "...most creative and exciting bass soloists in the world..." from
his dozens of solo performances, most notably as one of the select
bassists from over 100 countries invited to give solo concerts at the
2009, 2013, and 2015 International Society of Bassists conventions.
His music has been heard in over 40 states and in 22 countries, at
venues ranging from The White House to The Vienna State Opera House to
Carnegie Hall.

 Waddle is avidly dedicated to writing for his own instrument with
over 160 pieces for solo bass and more than 100 for bass in chamber
ensembles in print by the end of 2020. Waddle also pursues a path set
forth by such composers as Hindemith and Larsson having composed a
solo work, concerto, or major chamber music part for every standard
orchestral instrument save timpani, especially concentrating on pieces
for "neglected" instruments in a solo or chamber context -- among
these being the contrabassoon, which Waddle will have more works for
in print than any other living composer by mid-2019.

 Accolades Waddle's music has received include three nominations as
possible finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (including two double
concertos for members of The Cleveland Orchestra), an Austin Critics
Table award for his Second String Quartet commissioned by the renowned
Miró Quartet currently in residence at The University of Texas, and
four nominations as a semi-finalist for the American Prize in both the
chamber and orchestral categories. His prolific output continues (with
opus numbers now over 630) with over 80 premieres scheduled from the
present to mid-2022 in mediums ranging from short character pieces for
solo instruments to full scale works for large ensembles.

 Beginning with the 2017-18 season, Waddle has been named Permanent
Resident Composer of Orchestra Enigmatic, a chamber orchestra in his
hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where he now spends each winter
conducting and performing solo concerts throughout the region.
(Orchestra Enigmatic begins their sixth exciting season of innovative
concerts in calendar year 2019.) He is also Principal Guest Conductor
of the ensemble, who will premiere several new works of his throughout
the next three seasons. These works include : a full-length 25 minute
symphony for strings based on the music from Radiohead's " In Rainbows
" album, a sinfonia for strings with flute based on the canonical
office hours, a mixed dodectet ( 12 players ) with three concertante
bass parts, a mixed nonet for winds/brass/strings, 3 concertos (
contrabassoon, cello and TBD), and two more tone poems for chamber
orchestra.

 Since winning his first professional orchestra position at age 17, he
has been an active symphony musician leading to current position with
The Austin Symphony which he has held since 1992. Waddle also is the
long-time first call substitute with the San Antonio Symphony. He
performs as a chamber musician several times a season including
concerts under his own company, PKWproductions. PKWproductions'
innovative concerts often inspired by movies, art, literature, and
comprising Waddle's collections of works for a single instrument have
been widely praised both in Austin and in the national press. (His
epic hour-long string quintet inspired by the works of Kurt Vonnegut
was his third piece nominated as a possible finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize). These concerts have also included an Austin Critics Table
nomination for Outstanding Chamber Performance in 2013.

 Waddle also maintains an active conducting schedule along with his
Orchestra Enigmatic duties and served as the music director of The
Austin Philharmonic for 2 1/2 seasons. In recognition of his busy
Texas activities, he has also been nominated four times of State Of
Texas Musician of The Year by the Texas Legislature and is the only
classical solo bassist in the history of the festival to be given his
own showcase at SXSW.

 In addition to his busy musical pursuits, Waddle is also a widely
published and accomplished journalist, specifically in the field of
entertainment journalism. Since the late 1980s he has had over 3000
articles published in both print and online magazines as a critic and
analyst on the subjects of movies, Americana music, Blues music,
opera, television commercial advertising, politics, game shows, and
daytime dramas. ( In these last two fields Waddle has been cited in
various publications from TVGuide online to the now-defunct
Entertainment portal of America Online as a "walking encyclopedia of
the history and minutiae of daytime television-- he also wrote for
every soap opera publication extant from 1999 to 2003 and has been a
contributor to 2 books on soap operas' history.) He also served for
three years as the fact-checker/consultant for the Nick at Nite/TV
Land portal on America Online. His writing extends elsewhere as well
having published several microfictions (short stories of 1200 words or
less) and he is a prolific and award-winning poet, with the first book
of 111 of his collected poems scheduled to be published in mid 2021.

 In his extremely minimal spare time, Waddle is an avid board-game
enthusiast with his own library of games numbering 2500. He also is a
regular blog contributor to the site boardgamegeek.com [1] as well as
having five game designs of his own in progress. He also for a decade
was a licensed blackjack dealer and roulette croupier and travels to
Las Vegas several times a year as a semi-professional gambler.

 His music is published and printed in the US by TfV, Inc. of Waltham,
Massachusetts ( with a growing number of his works published in the UK
by Recital Music ) and his publicity is managed by WyattBrand of
Austin, Texas. Over 120 recordings and videos of his works, with more
being added on a regular basis can be found by searching "P. Kellach
Waddle" at classicalconnect.com [2] and on his Soundcloud page
athttps://soundcloud.com/pkw-2 [3]

---- Four Notable events on the horizon in Waddle's busy schedule as
of this writing include: a nine city/venue solo tour in March 2019
containing more than a dozen world and American premieres of his bass
solo works , a number of premieres of his music at the 2019
International Society of Bassists Convention at Indiana University in
June 2019, the premiere of his setting of The Friday Vespers at Chorus
Austin's annual concert of the music of Texas Composers, and the
premiere of his second concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Strings in
Carnegie Hall in June 2019.

--A HALF DOZEN QUOTES ON THE PLAYING AND COMPOSING OF P. KELLACH
WADDLE:

-- " ...an amazing, incredible, staggering virtuoso." -- Austin radio
luminary John Aielli (after a live radio performance of two of PKW's
solo bass pieces based on movie characters)

-- "...PKW is certainly an Austin classical music legend..." --
Internationally renowned violist/conductor/concert curator Aurélien
Pétillot (before a performance of one of PKW's solo viola works)

-- "...wonderful wonderful wonderful!!! Such musicality along with
amazing technical show. Bravo Bravo!!..." -- Legendary French bass
soloist/teacher/Principal Bass Paris National Orchestra Thierry Barbe
(after PKW's concert at the 2016 South Texas Bass Symposium)

-- "...P. Kellach Waddle arguably writes more for our instrument than
any other living composer... the fact that he turns out so much
material for us that is all excellent and effective at such a
staggeringly prolific rate... it borders on the inhuman..." --
Renowned British bass pedagogue/composer/soloist David Heyes

((Heyes and Waddle continue in 2019 an ongoing symbiosis of playing
and composing -- they will premiere/perform nearly a dozen of each
other's bass works during calendar year 2019 --Heyes has also recently
published a blog on Waddle's composing for bass at
https://www.facebook.com/My-Favourite-Bass-Things-1911224549121614/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1917510851826317
[4] ))

-- "...Those incredible harmonies!! It's as if late classical collides
with Sibelius -- it's also in places like Beethoven mixed with Arvo
Pärt!..." -- San Antonio Symphony cellist/Soli ensemble founder David
Mollenauer (after a performance of a trio of PKW's for 2 basses and
viola performed by the composer, Doug Balliett, and Lauren Magnus
Menard)

-- "...all those luxurious tunes and harmonies... and he may be a
virtuoso on something besides piano... but from how that piece sounded
I think (PKW) may be the American Rachmaninoff..." -- Vice President
of the board of The Balcones Chamber Orchestra (after their premiere
of PKW's American-Prize-in-Music-nominated Chamber Symphony, Dr.
Robert Radmer, conductor.)