Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Filipino-American trombonist Keefe Ismael is a rising professional musician and music educator. Keefe performs across a wide breadth of styles, where recent engagements include performing with the Zephyr Brass Collective, Out of Line Brass Band, and the Symphony of the Rockies. In the Bay, some of Keefe’s engagements include performing with the Cambrian Symphony, the Golden Gate Park Band, pits for several musical theater productions, and an independently organized benefit recital entitled “A New Age,” a recital of 21st century works in which proceeds were donated to HEAL Palestine and RAINN. He is also a grant recipient of Lift Music Fund, an organization dedicated to uplifting emerging BIPOC artists in the music industry.

As a music educator, Keefe has taught students from elementary school all the way through the adult amateur level. In the spring of 2023, he taught fifth grade band in the public schools of Mountain View, CA through the Community School for Music and Arts.  He has also provided coachings at several schools across the Bay Area, including Mt. Eden High School, Piedmont Hills High School, Redwood Middle School, and more. Currently, Keefe teaches low brass students in one-on-one instruction through his private teaching studio and helps teach undergraduate students as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Musicology and Ethnomusicology department at the University of Denver.

Keefe Ismael received his Bachelor’s Degree in Trombone Performance from San Jose State University studying under Tom Hornig on scholarship, and is currently finishing his master’s degree in musicology, where his research focuses on structural inequalities in the classical music industry. In his free time, Keefe enjoys craft coffee, watching movies, and being a menace to his friends and family.