Topher Keene is a speaker, author, coach, educator, musician, and mentor working to help the young (and young at heart) to build self-confidence and express themselves through Acting, Singing, and Public Speaking.
Topher was a Quarter-Finalist for the Grammy Award for Music Educator of the Year, he has his Silver Play Button from YouTube celebrating Millions of Views and Hundreds of Thousands of Subscribers, He was Featured on MTV, and has performed as a Soloist with the World-Famous Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Topher’s Students include Actors starring in Netflix and Nickelodeon Series, Voice Actors in AAA Videos Games, Professional Musicians with multiple Album releases, CEOs of Multi-Million Dollar Companies, Published Authors, and successful YouTubers and Podcasters with Millions of Views.
Topher’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/topherkeene features concert videos, singing exercises, and public talks.
Topher runs a private studio of passionate Singing, Acting, and Public Speaking students in Phoenix, AZ, and WorldWide over Zoom.
Many students also receive Executive Coaching, Math Tutoring, ACT/SAT Prep, Life-Coaching, and College Prep work. Topher offers a comprehensive Life-Coaching service for youth and adults looking to overcome social anxiety and improve their goals.
Topher’s Singing students range from total beginners who were once “tone deaf”, to talented high school students performing lead roles in musicals, to professional musicians writing original songs and recording full albums, all the way up to singers making a full-time living as musicians.
Topher’s Acting students have been featured in a variety of projects ranging from Student Films to Nickelodeon, MTV, and Netflix Series, AAA Video Games, and several students who have built successful YouTube Channels with subscriber counts over 100,000.
Topher’s Executive Coaching and Public Speaking students include absolute beginners, aspiring leaders, all the way up to Sales Professionals, VP’s and Executives, and CEO’s of Multi-Million Dollar companies. No matter your current goals, skill level, or background, Topher can help you master the skills necessary to push your career to the next level.
He also performs for churches, schools, and community organizations as a singer, conductor, and speaker.
Topher is the former Artistic Director of the Arizona GirlChoir, a 5-level 60+ singer choral program for girls and women ages 7+. AZGC saw a 200% increase in enrollment in Topher’s first season as director, and has featured many innovative performances and world-premiere works.
Topher previously served as the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Education for the Grammy-Award Winning Phoenix Boys Choir, America’s Top Boy’s Choir. He led workshops in elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Arizona working with hundreds of teachers and over 5000 students. As a result of this work he was a Quarter-finalist for the 2018 and 2019 Grammy Awards for Music Educator of the Year.
Topher has directed Church Choirs in many various churches over his career. He has also directed small and large community choruses, and recently took the Fountain of the Sun Chorus from 30 singers to 80+ while expanding from 2 small concerts to 3 sold-out 350+ seat concerts per season.
He is the former director of the Sweet Adeline’s chorus Simply A Cappella (A Female Barbershop Chorus). Keene formerly co-directed the International Championship Youth Barbershop Choruses: Sounds of the Mouth, featuring the Men’s Ensemble, Women’s Ensemble, and Mixed Ensemble.
Topher is a certified Kodály educator and previously served as President of the Arizona Kodály Teachers Society and served on the National Board of Directors as chair of the Technology Task Force. He has presented at Eastern and Western Division Regional Educator Conferences.
Topher received the “Outstanding Emerging Educator Award” from the Organization of American Kodály Educators in 2018.
Topher Keene co-founded ChoirUnlimited: a sheet music and choral resource publisher that provides singable, accessible, beautiful, innovative music by living composers. A single purchase comes with unlimited photocopying, recording, and performance rights. His choral arrangements have been performed by dozens of choirs across the world. Keene regularly commissions and premieres new works.
Keene directed the Maine District III Elementary Honors Festival Chorus from 2012-2016. He has presented sessions for music teachers on teaching struggling singers, community singing, aural literacy for choirs, and conducting technique at the Massachusetts, Maine, and Arizona Music Educators Conferences. He has also presented at the American Choral Directors Association Voices United Conference in Virginia, the Eastern Division Kodály Conference in Pennsylvania, and the Western Division Kodály Conference in Utah.
Topher has a passion for musical theater and leads many productions throughout Arizona. He is one of the music directors for the top summer program in AZ at the Phoenix Theater, and has also directed productions with Act One Youth Theater, Pinnacle Creative Arts, and a variety of other organizations. Topher has served as the music director for the Phoenix Theater’s “Musical Theater Intensive”, a 3-week training program for pre-professional musical theater students.
In 2022 Topher was the Opening Act for the Inaugural Catholic Comedy Festival in Phoenix, AZ, performing a 15-minute Standup Comedy set for an All-Ages audience of 400+.
Topher and his wife Emily are Early Childhood specialists as well. For several years, Topher led classes for 2-week to 5-year old children at the World’s Largest Musical Instrument Museum. He has developed curriculum for multiple early childhood music programs and trained hundreds of early-childhood music educators in conferences and workshops.
As the first undergraduate to complete the Kodály Certification program at the New England Conservatory in 2010 (4.0 GPA), Topher honed his passion for music literacy and voice-based pedagogy. His achievements at the University of Maine (Summa Cum Laude) are numerous and include serving as president of the student chapter of ACDA, conductor of the Collegiate Chamber Choir, assistant conductor of the Collegiate Chorale, University Orchestra, and professional choir Euphony, and chorus-master of the Opera Workshop. In his senior year, seeing a need for undergraduates to have experience conducting/rehearsing a live ensemble, Keene founded the Lab Choir: a group comprised of undergraduate conductors who each take turns rehearsing/conducting a piece of their own with the choir.
Topher Keene founded 3 community choirs, directed a church choir, and taught both middle and high school choruses in Maine before moving to Boston in 2011. In Boston he founded 2 additional choirs and the contemporary acappella group Out of Range. In 2015 he moved to Arizona and has directed multiple choirs locally. He has taught private voice for the last 15 years, having coached hundreds of singers, actors, and public speakers from ages 4-94. Beyond music and performance, Topher has a deep interest in academia and has been a math tutor since childhood, is a member of MENSA, and performs stand-up comedy while continuing to nurture passions for entrepreneurship, philosophy, psychology and physics.
Topher was featured on MTV’s True Life, documenting his pursuit of genius and his acceptance to the Triple 9 Society, an exclusive high-IQ organization that only accepts those testing in the top 99.9% (1 in 1000) of intelligence in the world.
Topher is frequently interviewed for TV, radio, and podcasts. Some of his best interviews include:
- Let’s Play Music: Singing in Tune with Topher Keene
- Choral Values on the Find Your Forte Podcast with Ryan Guth
- Everyone Can Learn to Sing on the Instant Authority Expert Podcast
- Do The Right Thing, Right! on BlogTalkRadio
In demand as a guest conductor and clinician for school, church and community ensembles throughout the United States, Topher Keene is always open to new opportunities to share his love and passion for music with new singers.