Bruce Brubaker is a musician, artist, concert pianist, and writer from the United States.
Bruce Brubaker is a musician, artist, concert pianist, and writer from the United States.
Brubaker's work uses and combines Western classical music with postmodern artistic, literary, theatrical, and philosophical ideas. [1] [2] He is associated with the 21st century revitalization of classical music (sometimes termed "alternative classical"). [3] With over 150 million plays on Spotify, Brubaker reaches a large music audience online. Brubaker's recordings have been remixed by prominent electronic musicians, including Plaid, Max Cooper, Akufen, Francesco Tristano, Arandel, and others. [4] [5] [6] The New York Times wrote: "Few pianists approach Philip Glass's music with the level of devotion and insight that Bruce Brubaker brings to it, precisely the reason he gets so much expressivity out of it." [7] He has performed at London's Barbican Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, New York's David Geffen Hall, and at BOZAR in Brussels. He has created and performed multidisciplinary artworks at the Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron, [8] the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, [9] Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, [10] the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, [11] Columbia University, [12] and at the Juilliard School. Brubaker is an advisor to Yamaha's artificial intelligence project, "Dear Glenn". [13]
Brubaker has published articles about music and semiotics, [14] and performance as research. [15] His blog, "PianoMorphosis", appears at ArtsJournal.com. [16] Brubaker advocates the treatment of written music as "text". He has sometimes performed and recorded new music without the direct input of the composer. [17] Brubaker has said: "The piano is a tool that can be used in different ways. Classical music can be taken as material for new art." [18] Brubaker has argued that technology is returning music to a pre-composer condition, and equalizing or blurring the roles of listener, performer, and composer. In a conversation with Philip Glass at Princeton, Brubaker referred to "the demise of the composer". Brubaker said: "Now, it's becoming a little less clear who creates a work, who plays the work, and who listens to the work. Those roles used to seem to be so clear – you know, Beethoven wrote it, Brendel played it, and the audience at Carnegie heard it. But I don't think that quite works anymore." [19]
Brubaker was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and educated at the Juilliard School, [20] where his primary teacher was pianist Jacob Lateiner. [21] [22] At Juilliard, he also studied with Milton Babbitt and Felix Galimir, and with Louis Krasner at Tanglewood. As a concert pianist, he has appeared performing Mozart with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, [23] Haydn at the Wigmore Hall, [24] Alvin Curran at Kings Place in London, [25] Messiaen and Philip Glass at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge nightclub, [26] Brahms at Leipzig's Gewandhaus, and extemporizing simultaneous performances with his former student Francesco Tristano [27] and jazz legend Ran Blake.
He received a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, [28] and was named Young Musician of the Year by Musical America . Brubaker was a National Merit Scholar. He has performed at New York's Zankel Hall, Antwerp's Queen Elizabeth Hall, [20] the Gaîté lyrique in Paris, the Tanglewood Festival, and the Sónar festival in Barcelona.
Brubaker's solo piano recordings survey a range of American music by Philip Glass, [5] John Adams, Alvin Curran, William Duckworth, Meredith Monk, Nico Muhly, and John Cage. [29] Brubaker has premiered piano music by Cage, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly, [30] and Daron Hagen. He has collaborated with Meredith Monk. [31] In 2012, Brubaker, together with Ursula Oppens, recorded Monk's piano music. [32] His album Codex includes multiple readings of Terry Riley's Keyboard Study No. 2 and Renaissance keyboard pieces from the Codex Faenza .
For nine years, Brubaker was a faculty member at the Juilliard School [33] where he originated an interdisciplinary performance program in 2001, producing new work with dancers, actors, and musicians. Students from Brubaker's piano repertory class at Juilliard include many distinguished pianists: Francesco Tristano, Simone Dinnerstein, Shai Wosner, Helen Huang, Lera Auerbach, Vicky Chow, David Greilsammer, Elizabeth Joy Roe, Greg Anderson, Vikingur Olafsson, Stewart Goodyear, Adam Nieman, Soyeon Lee, Terrence Wilson, Christopher Guzman, Eric Huebner. At Juilliard, he gave public presentations with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, and Milton Babbitt. [34]
In 2000, he produced "Piano Century", an 11-concert retrospective of 20th-century piano music. [35] Since 2004, Brubaker has been a faculty member at Boston's New England Conservatory, where he has curated several projects in collaboration with the Boston Symphony and Harvard University. [34] [36] At New England Conservatory, Brubaker has appeared in public conversations with Alvin Curran, Meredith Monk, Tim Page, Salvatore Sciarrino and Russell Sherman. He serves as Curator of Piano Programming at New England Conservatory.
In 1994, Brubaker founded SummerMusic, now held at Drake University in his hometown of Des Moines; he returns annually to lead it. [37]
Brubaker records for ECM, InFiné, Arabesque, [38] and Bedroom Community.
John Adams: “Pat’s Aria” (from Nixon in China) (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno: Music for Airports (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker and Simon Hanes)
Brian Eno: By This River (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno: The Chill Air (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno: The Big Ship (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno: Failing Light (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Philip Glass: “Knee Play 4” (from Einstein on the Beach) (transcribed for solo piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Philip Glass: “The Poet Acts” (from ‘The Hours’ (transcribed for solo piano by Bruce Brubaker)
(Gustav Mahler:) Bruce Brubaker’s Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (piano, violin, viola, cello)
Olivier Messiaen: Prelude No. 1, “La colombe” (transcribed for flute and piano by Bruce Brubaker, for Paula Robison)
Meredith Monk: Totentanz (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Meredith Monk: Parlour Games (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Meredith Monk: Urban March (Shadow) (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Meredith Monk: Tower (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
Alvin Curran is an American composer, performer, improviser, sound artist, and writer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and lives and works in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, of Musica Elettronica Viva, and a former student of Elliott Carter. Curran's music often makes use of electronics and environmental found sounds. He was a professor of music at Mills College in California until 2006 and now teaches privately in Rome and sporadically at various institutions.
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records. In 1991, Monk composed Atlas, an opera, commissioned and produced by the Houston Opera and the American Music Theater Festival. Her music has been used in films by the Coen Brothers and Jean-Luc Godard. Trip hop musician DJ Shadow sampled Monk's "Dolmen Music" on the song "Midnight in a Perfect World". In 2015, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama.
The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. As the organization undergoes a multi-year renovation it is currently sited at a satellite loft space in the West Village located at 163B Bank Street, where exhibitions and performances are regularly held. It was founded in Greenwich Village in 1971 by Steina and Woody Vasulka, who were frustrated at the lack of an outlet for video art. The space takes its name from the original location, the kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center which was the only available place for the artists to screen their video pieces. Although first intended as a location for the exhibition of video art, The Kitchen soon expanded its mission to include other forms of art and performance. In 1974, The Kitchen relocated to a building at the corner of Wooster and Broome Streets in SoHo, and incorporated as a not-for-profit arts organization. In 1987 it moved to its current location.
Jacob Lateiner was a Cuban-American pianist.
Quynh Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American classical pianist based in New York City. She has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, to wide critical acclaim. For her Carnegie Recital Hall debut, the New York Concert Review commented: “Ms. Nguyen’s pianism and music making are graced with beauty and exuberance. She is a real artist; a wonderfully communicative performer. What a compendium of intellect, sophistication and taste!” Dr. Quynh Nguyen currently serves on the piano faculty of Hunter College and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City.
Nico Asher Muhly is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles and has had two operas commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Since 2006, he has released nine studio albums, many of which are collaborative, including 2017's Planetarium with Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner & James McAlister. He is a member of the Icelandic music collective and record label Bedroom Community.
Arabesque Records is an American record company and label specializing in jazz and classical music.
Francesco Tristano Schlimé, stage name Francesco Tristano, born 1981, is a Luxembourgish classical and experimental pianist and composer who also plays the clarinet. He composes both classical and electronic music.
Nadia Sirota is an American viola player. Her father is Robert Sirota, a composer and conductor.
Timo Andres is an American composer and pianist. He grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
InFiné is a French record label directed by Alexandre Cazac and Yannick Matray. Initially coming from electronic music, the label releases a wide range of music, from classical music to ambient, club and pop music.
Piano Songs is a studio album by pianists Bruce Brubaker and Ursula Oppens performing music composed by Meredith Monk, released on March 24, 2014 by ECM New Series.
The Viola Concerto is a composition for solo viola and orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. Composed in 2014, the work was jointly commissioned by the Orquesta Nacionales de España, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Festival de Saint Denis, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. It was first performed on February 6, 2015 by the violist Nadia Sirota and the Orquesta Nacionales de España under the conductor Nicholas Collon. The piece was later given its United States premiere on October 23, 2015, by Sirota and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin.
The Concerto for Piano is a composition for solo piano and orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the pianist Jacob Lateiner with support from the Ford Foundation. It was composed between 1964 and 1965 and was first performed at Symphony Hall, Boston on January 6, 1967, by Lateiner and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Erich Leinsdorf. The piece was dedicated to the composer Igor Stravinsky for his 85th birthday.
Edge of the World is a concerto for five pianos and orchestra by the American composer Nico Muhly. It was commissioned by the Ravinia Festival and was written specifically for the sibling piano group The 5 Browns, whom Muhly met while attending Juilliard School. The piece was first performed by the 5 Browns and Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of James Conlon on August 9, 2011. Muhly dedicated the concerto to the 5 Browns.
Angela and Jennifer Chun are Korean-American violinists and collaborative artists.
National Sawdust is a nonprofit music producer and venue in Brooklyn, New York with the goal of providing "composers and musicians across genres... a setting where they are given unprecedented support and critical resources essential to create and share their work." The organization is named after its building's original tenant, an early 20th century sawdust factory by the same name. It was founded in 2015 by composer Paola Prestini and attorney Kevin Dolan. Since then, National Sawdust has featured artists and ensembles including Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Nico Muhly, Yo La Tengo, Chris Thile, Pussy Riot, Caroline Polachek, Tanya Tagaq, Agnes Obel, Joan Tower, John Corigliano, the International Contemporary Ensemble, yMusic, Missy Mazzoli, Royce Vavrek, Du Yun, Karole Armitage, and Anthony Roth Costanzo.
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