Charles Kieny is an accordionist and composer, based between Paris and London; Adept of improvisation, the variety of his artistic activity makes him an open and versatile musician. An installation of electronic sensors, called "augmented accordion", allows him to play synthesizers directly from his acoustic instrument.

Graduate of Paris CNSM (National Superior Conservatory of Music), the teachings of the great masters of jazz and improvisation inspire his artistic approach.

Charles is a 2021 laureate of FoRTE (Regional Fund for Emerging Talents) of the Paris Region for his project CKRAFT, a jazz-metal quintet with melodies from Gregorian chant, which won the Tonnerre de Jazz award and released his first album "Epic Discordant Vision" in 2022.

Invited twice to the AMV (Musical Academy of Villecroze) by Richard Galliano then Vincent Peirani, he returned there in residency to develop his CrozPhonics project, a trio of two cellos and accordion mixing contemporary jazz and folk influences in an approach chamber musician, 2022 winner of the Musician – Jazz and Classical Music grant from the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation.

Based on the idea that beyond styles, what defines music is the people who make it, Charles also takes part in a multitude of experiences and aesthetic crossbreeding: we have just as well been able to hear him play in the project for large orchestras by Kevin Lam and Ellinoa as well as in Sayag Jazz Machine's edgy Drum'n'Bass as well as in Fabrizio Cassol's Requiem Pour L, which brought together on stage jazzmen, singers, traditional Congolese musicians and South African opera singers. Beat Service, in residence in 2022 at the Parisian club La Gare Le Gore, plays long improvisations of free electro: from jungle to jazz and trance to tech. All opportunities to cross the barriers between styles are of interest to the accordionist, who also associates himself with live shows, such as the Opéra de Quat'Sous with the Comédie de Genève or the 'Paris Merveille' show of Lido de Paris, and participated in the very first "youth orchestra" of the Orchestre National de Jazz under the direction of Frédéric Maurin and François Jeanneau.

Charles extends his artistic activity to the United Kingdom, in a recent collaboration with singer/composer Alice Zawadzki in Manchester Collective's project 'Bag Of Bones', as well as in duet with jazz pianist Ivo Neame.