Ryan Brown (born 1958) is an American classical conductor.

Biography and career

Ryan Brown was born into a musical family in California: his mother was a pianist, and his father was a pianist and conductor. He benefited from having a number of well-known musicians both staying and playing music in his home. He initially performed as a violinist and chamber musician before starting out as a conductor. He holds degrees from Oberlin, Cincinnati, and the Juilliard School, where he studied the violin under

Dorothy DeLay Dorothy DeLay (March 31, 1917 – March 24, 2002) was an American violin instructor, primarily at the Juilliard School, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Cincinnati. Life Dorothy DeLay was born on March 31, 1917, in Medicine Lodg ...

. He studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. In 1995, Brown founded Les Violons de Lafayette (which later changed its name to

Opera Lafayette Opera Lafayette is an opera company based in Washington, D.C., that produces French operas from the 17th and 18th centuries. It was founded in 1995 by Ryan Brown and splits its season between Washington and New York City. History Specializing ...

), and has been music director and conductor ever since. This group, dedicated to the performance of baroque and classical operas, notably French works, has performed at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D. C., Lincoln Center, in New York, and many other venues. Brown and Opéra Lafayette have focused on French opera of the 18th century, performing works by

Charpentier Charpentier () is the French language, French word for "carpenter", and it is also a French surname; a variant spelling is Carpentier. In English, the equivalent word and name is "Carpenter (surname), Carpenter"; in German, "Zimmermann (disambigua ...

Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera an ...

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the ...

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

, and many others. With Opéra Lafayette, Brown has recorded a number of CDs for the

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...

label, including works by

Monsigny Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny ( – ) was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (1813). He is considered alongside André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor to have been the founder of a new musical genre ...

and

Rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; s ...

References

External links

Ryan Brown's biography on the Opéra Lafayette web site

American male conductors (music) Living people 1958 births Oberlin College alumni Juilliard School alumni Peabody Institute alumni Gettysburg College faculty Music directors (opera) 20th-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American conductors (music) Classical musicians from California 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians {{US-conductor-stub