Ken Keuffel

About Me

Before I began writing communications pieces for universities, I worked as an arts reporter for more than 20 years, most recently at The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal (more about that below).

I still write about the arts, having come to favor publication vehicles that enable me to achieve at least one of three aims:

1) to preserve an inspirational story in the collective memory of the greater A&E community;

2) to provide fledgling and mid-career A&E professionals with the actionable insights of a more established colleague;

and

3) to solidify an A&E professional's credentials as an accomplished expert.

So, consider hiring me if you need the following:

■ A Ghostwriter
☛ Want to write a memoir/autobiography but lack the time and inclination to take on the heavy lifting of a large writing project? Hire me to do it for you! I did all the interviews, research, and writing for the life's stories of four arts professionals, each of whom put their bylines on the books after approving their contents. Excerpts of these books are on my LinkedIn page and here: https://kkeuffel.wixsite.com/memorablememoirs-1/clients

■ A Writer of Articles Aimed at Alumni, Prospective Students
☛ A profile, feature, or Q&A on the website of your alma mater can help raise awareness of the great work you’re doing. Let’s ask an editor if we can collaborate on an article like the ones I’ve filed for Pfeiffer University, Rice University, Fayetteville State University, Appalachian State, the UNT College of Music, and UNC School of the Arts.

■ A Writer/Editor of Obituaries
☛ When a president leaves office or a celebrity retires, reporters often write their obits so that such pieces are all but ready for immediate publication (aka "in the can"). I can apply the same stress-reducing procedure to the preparation of an obit for any arts professional who wants to disseminate an accurate, comprehensive account of their life's highlights.

Want to talk further?

Contact me at [email protected] or (336) 705-4382.

P.S. My interests as a writer keep evolving.

They now include writing PR materials for musicians and ghostwriting memoirs (of non-artists) as well as filing alumni profiles and news stories remotely for Pfeiffer University on its website/e-newsletters.

I'm very proud of my association with Pfeiffer, a United Methodist-related institution in Misenheimer, N.C.; documenting all the good that their professors and staff do for students has been a great honor.

I've written communications pieces for several other universities, including UNC School of the Arts, Rice University, Fayetteville State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Appalachian State University.

I've started “Musings on Musical Maine,” a Medium publication devoted to exploring Maine’s classical music scene through everything from news reports to opinion pieces, with occasional forays into jazz and other styles.

More info about my Winston-Salem Journal tenure:

I will always cherish my time at the Journal, where I covered students and instructors at the UNC School of the Arts performing music, ballet, contemporary dance, and drama. I also wrote about sets, costumes etc. that originated in UNCSA's School of Design & Production. And I became something of a higher education reporter, covering personnel and policy changes at UNCSA as well as relevant developments in the UNC System, of which UNCSA is a part.

When I wasn't covering UNCSA, I wrote about community theater, the Winston-Salem Symphony, Piedmont Opera, the Piedmont Wind Symphony, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (now the N.C. Museum of Art Winston-Salem).

I was kept quite busy during the summer, filing stories from An Appalachian Summer (Boone, N.C.); the National Black Theatre Festival, a biennial event in Winston-Salem covered by The New York Times; Spoleto Festival USA in Charleson, S.C.; and the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C.

Throughout my entire career, which included stints at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, I interviewed and/or reviewed performances by numerous superstar performers, including dancer Ethan Stiefel, film/TV star Danny McBride, and arts consultant Aubrey Bergauer.

My portfolio favors stories on classical and jazz musicians. I've interviewed and/or filed previews or reviews featuring trumpeters Wynton Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval, and Maynard Ferguson; pianists Menahem Pressler, Jon Nakamatsu, Van Cliburn, and Jeffrey Biegel; composer Peter Boyer; several string quartets, including the Emerson and the Ying; cellist Carter Brey, violinist Itzhak Perlman, as well as conductors Rob Simon, Robert Moody, and Frederick Fennell.