Born and raised in the Canadian Prairies near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Keith Dyrda is a celebrated trombonist who has performed throughout the world in all four hemispheres. He is the trombonist in the world renowned Canadian Brass, an honour he was first given in 2010 at age 21 when he replaced founding member and former trombonist Gene Watts. As such he regularly appears on stages in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Keith was featured on the Canadian Brass 2012 album “Brahms on Brass”, which was nominated for a Juno Award in the category of Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble. 

At the invitation of another former Canadian Brass member, trumpeter Jens Lindemann, Keith was also a member of the All-Star Brass, a quintet that frequently performed and recorded at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. As a member of that ensemble, Keith recorded four highly acclaimed albums of brass music. 

From 2015 - 2026, Keith was also a member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, regularly occupying each of the three trombone chairs and performing on a variety of low brass instruments including alto, tenor and bass trombones, tenor tuba and euphonium, and bass trumpet. For the 2022/23 season, Keith served as both Acting Principal Trombone of the WSO and the trombone instructor at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. Keith also had the pleasure of joining the Winnipeg Youth Orchestras as a conductor in the fall of 2019, eventually leading two ensembles within the 101-year old organization of which he was once a student for many years. 

Since 2017, Keith has also been a member of the Canadian National Brass Project, a large brass ensemble comprised of musicians from numerous Canadian orchestras which has recorded extensively and performed all across the country. As a substitute musician, Keith has performed with the Symphony Orchestras of Chicago, Montreal, Vancouver, and Quebec, Orchestra Iowa, and Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music of the Baroque. He can also frequently be found on stage with Winnipeg’s Jazz Orchestra, Dirty Catfish Brass Band, and Northern Brassworks. Keith’s playing has been featured on recordings by many Winnipeg-based artists, including Begonia, Matthew Peters, Yes We Mystic, and Steve Bell. 

In addition to his small and large ensemble experience, Keith has also frequently appeared in a solo capacity. He has performed as a soloist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble. He has given recitals at the Orford Arts Centre in Quebec, the Women’s Music Club of Winnipeg, and at the Winnipeg Music Festival Gala. In 2013 as part of the 60th anniversary commemoration of the Korean War Armistice, Keith appeared as a soloist with the World Peace Orchestra For Korea. This ensemble was comprised of musicians from each of the UN-affiliated countries that participated in the war, and formed with the mission of using classical music to spread a message of peace and unity across the Korean Peninsula. The ensemble was led by Maestro Francesco La Vecchia of Rome, and gave several performances in Seoul, Busan, and at the Demilitarized Zone. 

As a competitive musician, Keith has many prizes to his name. Most notably he was the grand-prize winner ex-aequo of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's 2008 Standard Life Competition, the first prizewinner of the International Trombone Festival’s 2009 Robert Marsteller Competition in Aarhus, Denmark, and the 2009 Alessi Seminar Solo Competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was the recipient of the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Grant, and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant. 

Keith holds a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music (for which he received the Gold Medal in performance), and a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. His primary teachers include Michael Mulcahy (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), James Box (Montreal Symphony Orchestra), and Steven Dyer (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra).

Keith is a Vincent Bach performing artist.