A freelance flutist, artist, improviser, and composer from Seattle, Leanna Keith (she/they) delights in creating sound experiences that make audiences laugh, cry, and say: “I didn’t know the flute could do that!” She is currently a doctoral student at the University of California San Diego. Their works focus on spontaneous sound creation, timbre-shifting, the mixed-race experience, queer theory, and the breaking of performer/audience boundaries. She is dedicated to playing music by composers who are still living, and advocates for the usage of music as social activism. As a composer, Leanna is interested in cross-genre collaboration, playful exploration, extended techniques for flute, and diaspora storytelling. She has written and premiered countless works for flute and looper pedal, often performed as a part of the Bushwick Book Club - creating pieces about various books of fiction and poetry. In her solo performances, she often improvises new works on the spot, generated from audience prompts to create new soundscapes. In 2025, Leanna partnered with taiko artist and educator Yeeman “ManMan” Mui to compose “Demure Asian Rage”, a multidisciplinary structural improv piece exploring how rage manifests in the context of being Asian, non-binary, genderfluid and AFAB individual in a world that frequently marginalizes such identities. The piece utilizes flutes, taiko drums, vocals, poetry, electronics, choreography, and audience participation to tell a story of queer Asian American liberation. In addition to this hour-long work, she wrote a short but sweet alto flute and bass flute duet commissioned by Rose Bishop and Heather Neueschwander titled Fremont Street for their low flute duet album. They also were commissioned by Nebula Ensemble to write a trio for flute, voice, and viola, titled “Built To Last”, a twenty minute scathing comedic commentary on capitalism and consumer culture. Her compositional year was rounded off by creating the flute and electronics soundtrack
