Artist Bio - Kelsey Dower

Kelsey Maree Dower was born in Santa Ana, California on December 22, 1993. She began playing the piano and singing at 18 months old by ear. It was this that inspired her mother who is an arts educator, to begin involving her in a variety of musical gigs for much of her childhood; being the opening act for Clay Aiken, performing choral music at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (under Simon Carrington’s instruction), and performing in Disneyland’s Candlelight. Whenever her peers in college would hear her music, they would compare it to soundtrack pieces from movies, and video games such as final fantasy and kingdom hearts, which is how she came to realize what her career goals are; to not only be an independent symphonic metal artist, but to also create music for video games, film, and animation. In 2020, she got accepted to UNLV and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Jazz and Commercial Music. While she was more involved in the commercial aspect of the degree program, she noted that learning about jazz has helped in her extensive knowledge on how jazz connects to all forms of commercial music. Kelsey has also created a non-profit organization dedicated to women on the autism spectrum during her time in both community college and her time in university. Although the organization didn’t last for very long, it spread to approximately 1.7k people and brought more awareness to how autism operates in women. The same amount of people were reached through her other current social media formats, most notably YouTube. Her audience is a mixture of people who are neurodivergent and of African American cultural background, who state that her cover songs and the demo version of Rage that she wrote has inspired them (as well as their kids) who would also be on the autism spectrum.

Website: https://www.semel.ucla.edu/nadc/artist/kelsey-maree-dower