Brian Current
conductor and composer
“The voice of an original composer with something important to say could be clearly heard.”
— Allan Rich, L.A Weekly
Biography
Brian Current writes music that is brimming with energy – sometimes with the propulsive rhythms of so-called minimalist music, sometimes with a more delicate sense of flux, but almost always with a sense of motion and playfulness about the treatment of time and texture. These features have won him numerous honours, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize for Orchestral Music, and Italy’s Premio Fedora for his new chamber opera Airline Icarus.
His concert-length work for Orchestra, Chorus, and Soloists, The River of Light, is premiering with the Vancouver Bach Choir and Orchestra in May of 2019.
Future projects include a vertical opera about Glenn Gould on the wall of Toronto's Telus Centre, a commission for Cambridge's Ora Singers and a commission for the Eckhardt-Gramatté competition.
Major projects
A concert-length work for Orchestra, Chorus, and Soloists, the work celebrates the diverse languages and spiritual beliefs of our world today. Premiered with the Vancouver Bach Choir and Orchestra in May of 2019.
A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO NEW MUSIC FOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Performed by orchestras in Canada and worldwide, the work, with narration, introduces audiences of all ages to new music in an engaging and original manner.
MISSING
An opera which gives voice to Canada's missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. Premiered to glowing reviews in November 2017 in Vancouver
Reviews
LA WEEKLY
“The voice of an original composer with something important to say could be clearly heard.”
— Allan Rich
AMERICAN RECORD TIME
“Brian Current writes cutting-edge music that combines traditional and avant-garde playing techniques, all manner of tonality, and terrific imagination.”
— Barry Kilpatrick
THE VILLAGER
“Music may never have sounded quite so intoxicating.”
— Michael Clive (New York)