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Bryan Christian, composer
Itemized News
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Commissions
Awards
Performances/Residencies
Lectures
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March
2011
Commissioned by the 2011 Monadnock Music Festival (August 2011, Peterborough, New Hampshire), in consortium with soprano Tony Arnold and Duke University, to write a song for soprano and ensemble on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
September
2010
Commissioned by the pianist Julien Libeer to write a composition for solo piano, to be performed in Belgium, 2011; resulting work: Watercolor.
August
2010
Commissioned by the 59th Festival Les Musicales (May 2011, Colmar, France) to write a composition for clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, and three cellos; resulting work: A Fountain Unseen.
May
2010
Commissioned by Susan Narucki to write a composition which features soprano voice.
May
2010
Commissioned by the Aurora Borealis Duo (Tiffany DuMouchelle, soprano; Stephen Solook, percussion) to write a composition for soprano and percussion.
February
2010
Commissioned by the 20th Juventus Festival to write a composition for flute, oboe, piano, violin, viola, and cello in celebration of the festival's 20th anniversary; resulting work: Marées.
December
2009
Awarded a 2009 Fromm Commission, by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, to write a new composition for Ensemble U:, an Estonian-based new music ensemble.
May
2009
Commissioned by Sirje Mõttus and Triin Ella to write a composition for accordion, mezzo-soprano, and actor; resulting work: Oriemur, we will rise.
May
2009
Commissioned by Ohio Northern University to write a composition for full orchestra with solo vocal (S-A-Bar-BBar) quartet.
December
2008
Commissioned by the 19th Juventus Festival, in consortium with Liana Gourdjia and Marc Coppey, to write a composition for violin and cello; resulting work: Aquae Fontes.
June
2010
Awarded the TA Excellence Award for Superior Teaching Performance by the University of California San Diego Department of Music.
December
2009
Awarded a 2009 Fromm Commission, by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, to write a new composition for Ensemble U:, an Estonian-based new music ensemble.
April
2008
Recipient of U.S. J. William Fulbright Grant to Estonia (full grant).
May
2007
Awarded the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Dean’s Prize in Music Composition.
April
2007
Selected as a winner of the 55th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards.
August
2011
Was the 2011 Young Composer Fellow and composer-in-residence at Monadnock Music 2011, where his commissioned work, Airs no Oceans keep, was premiered on August 11th, 2011 in Nelson, New Hampshire. The work received a second performance - also part of Monadnock Music - on August 12th, 2011 in Dublin, New Hampshire.
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May
2011
Was composer-in-residence at the 59th Festival Les Musicales de Colmar in France, where his commissioned work, A Fountain Unseen, was premiered on May 6th, 2011.
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April
2011
Conducted the USA premiere of Marées at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina on April 4th, 2011.
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July
2010
Was composer-in-residence at the 20th Juventus Festival in Cambrai, France, where his commissioned work, Marées, was premiered on July 5th, 2010.
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June
2010
Attended the premiere of Oriemur, we will rise in Tallinn, Estonia on June 2nd, 2010 at Von Krahl Teater. Immediately following the premiere, he gave a post-concert lecture about the new work.
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July
2009
Was composer-in-residence at the 19th Juventus Festival in Cambrai, France where his commissioned work, Aquae Fontes, was premiered on July 8th, 2009.
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April
2009
Attended the performance of Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat at the Estonian Music Days Festival in Tallinn, Estonia on April 20th, 2009.
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March
2009
Attended the premiere of Vespers by the Estonian Academy of Music Orchestra in Tallinn, Estonia on March 30, 2009.
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January
2009
Attended the premiere of Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat and a performance of Nuclear Winter at the IP “Crossing Borders” Festival, hosted by the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, in Tallinn, Estonia on January 29th, 2009.
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June
2010
Gave the lecture “Threads: hidden and audible; the affect of memory on compositional technique” at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre as well as a lecture about recent compositions at Tallinn University. This project was supported by the U.S. Embassy in Estonia.
March
2010
Gave the lecture “Memory, Medieval Monastic Rhetoric, and Virtual Multidimensional Spaces - Recent Music of Bryan Christian” at the University of California San Diego Music Composition inFocus seminar.
May
2009
Gave the lectures “The Music of Cambodian-American Composer Chinary Ung” and “Cognitive Structures and Form in the Music of Bryan Christian” at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
April
2009
Gave the lecture “Form in Music as a Multidimensional Virtual Environment” at the Changing Face of Music Education: Music and Environment, 2nd International Conference at Tallinn University in Tallinn, Estonia.
February
2009
Gave the lecture “Trends in American Contemporary Classical Music” at the Viljandi Culture Academy and American Corner at Viljandi City Library in Viljandi, Estonia.
February
2009
Gave the lecture “Cognitive Structures and Form in the Music of Bryan Christian” at the American Center in Moscow, Russia. As well, he gave a lecture on his compositions at the Russian State University for the Humanities, also in Moscow, Russia.
August
2011
Attended the Walden School Teacher Training Institute.
May
2011
Rehearsal of A Fountain Unseen at Festival Les Musicales de Colmar featured on France 3 TV (beginning at 0:50 till the end of the clip). View clip here.
May
2011
Premiere of A Fountain Unseen at the 59th Festival Les Musicales de Colmar in France receives an outstanding review by critic Christian Fruchart:
"Mais on retiendra surtout la création de A Fountain Unseen, où Bryan Christian, Américain inconnu ici, ménage une hypnotique alchimie entre trois violoncelles, clarinette, clarinette basse et basson. Une lente procession microtonale, où les recherches de timbre et d’harmonie atteignent à un raffinement rare, situe le compositeur loin des abstractions cérébrales, du côté de l’actuelle et affranchie generation estonienne. A suivre."
[But we particularly note the creation of A Fountain Unseen, where Bryan Christian, an American unknown here, creates a hypnotic alchemy of three cellos, clarinet, bass clarinet and bassoon. A slow microtonal procession, where his research in timbre and harmony reach a rare refinement, the composer is far from cerebral abstractions, on the side of the current generation, stamped Estonian. To be followed.]
August
2010
Begins doctoral studies in music composition at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA.
June
2010
Graduated from the University of California San Diego with a Master of Arts in Music Composition.
April–May
2010
Served as assistant conductor to the Kallisti Ensemble’s production of Pascal Dusapin’s chamber opera “To Be Sung,” directed by Susan Narucki.
February
2010
Featured in a UC San Diego News article about his recent music and Fromm Commission from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University.
June
2009
Graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with a Master of Arts in Music Composition.
Duke University Graduate Student Composers [2011] Spring Program
IU Jacobs School of Music New Music Ensemble to perform Bryan Christian's Nuclear Winter in Kosovo
UCSD composer wins prestigious commission from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University
Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard Announces 2009 commissions
Bryan Christian gives lecture "Trends in Contemporary Classical Music of America" at the American Corner in Viljandi, Estonia
Bryan Christian named a winner of the 55th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards
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