![Taylor-Brook-Composer-born-1985](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Taylor-Brook-Composer-born-1985.jpg)
Taylor Brook (born 1985) is a composer of
contemporary classical music who currently resides in New York City.
Education
Brook was born in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
but grew up in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, where he attended
Etobicoke School of the Arts
The Etobicoke School of the Arts (ESA) is a specialized public arts-academic high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located in Etobicoke, it has been housed in the former Royal York Collegiate Institute facility since 1983. Founded on September ...
, a specialized arts-academic public high school. His studies included guitar and violin. He then studied at the
Schulich School of Music
The Schulich School of Music (also known as Schulich) is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest (555, Sherbrooke Street West). The faculty was named after benef ...
at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
, where he completed his Bachelor of Music degree in 2007 and earned his Master's Degree in Music Composition. For his thesis he composed ''Mitya'', a piece for solo clarinet with 18 musicians and live electronics. It premiered on April 14, 2010, with Mark Bradley of the Portmantô Ensemble as soloist and
Denys Bouliane
Denys Bouliane (born May 8, 1955) is a Canadian composer and conductor. He is a Professor of Composition at McGill University.
Early life and education
Bouliane was born in Grand-Mère, Quebec. He is a graduate of Laval University (B.Mus 19 ...
conducting the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. His teachers included
Brian Cherney, Denys Bouliane,
Luc Brewaeys
Luc Brewaeys (25 October 1959 in Mortsel, Belgium – 18 December 2015 in Antwerp, Belgium) was a Belgian composer, conductor, pianist and recording producer at the VRT (Flemish Radio & Television). He studied composition with André Laporte in B ...
, Ana Sokolović,
John Rea, and Sean Ferguson.
Career and compositions
In 2008, he spent two months in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
studying at Bhattacharya School of Universal Music with Hindustani musician Pandit
Debashish Bhattacharya, studying
raga on the ''chaturangui'', a many-stringed slide guitar of Bhattacharya's invention.
This exposure influenced subsequent works including his 2009 composition ''Vocalise'', for solo violin accompanied by a
drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
playing a continuous tone 14
cents flat of F. The piece won the 2010 Lee Ettelson Composer's Award from Composers, Inc., whose artistic director is
Robert Greenberg
Robert M. Greenberg (born April 18, 1954) is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture seri ...
.
Another 2009 composition, ''Murder Ballad'', won the ''coup de cœur'' prize from le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.
His composition ''It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there'' won the
Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collects ...
Young Composers Award for 2010.
For the
Nouvel Ensemble Moderne Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is one of the world's premier chamber orchestras specializing in contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1989 by Lorraine Vaillancourt, who serves as the ensemble's conducto ...
's FORUM 2010, he composed music to accompany the 2010 version of the ''Les trains où vont les choses'' series of films by Nathalie Bujold. This piece was awarded the Prix Public and second prize from the jury.
(The phrase ''Les trains où vont les choses'' is a play on words — "le train de choses" is an idiom for "the way things go" or "that's how it goes." The title is pluralized to reflect the grid of images in the video. The double meaning is from the fact it is filmed from a train window.)
His 2011 composition ''Against the Morning'' was
commissioned by the
Banff Centre
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...
. It was inspired by the third movement (''Summer Morning by a Lake'') of Schoenberg's
Five Pieces for Orchestra
The ''Five Pieces for Orchestra'' (''Fünf Orchesterstücke''), Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909, and first performed in London in 1912. The titles of the pieces, reluctantly added by the composer after the work's completion upo ...
.
In 2011, Brook studied orchestral composition with Luc Brewaeys in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
and Quatuor Bozzini recorded his piece ''Florescences'' for their album ''À chacun sa miniature''.
The ArtSpring Arts Center in Salt Spring Island announced in May 2012 that it would host a residency for Brook and Quatuor Bozzini to develop and perform a new evening-length work over the period August 1–7, 2012. The process was captured by Quebec videographer Nathalie Bujold and the audience received a preview of the result on August 4, and participated in its creation.
Brook was a finalist in the 2012 American Composers Forum ''Finale'' National Composition Contest September 14, 2012. His entry ''Arrhythmia'' was described as "a strikingly modern re-imagining of Mahler’s ninth symphony, lush and ethereal"
He is the technical director of
TAK Ensemble, a quintet that performs contemporary classical music, including Brook's.
Discography
* ''Give My Regards to 116th Street'' (Carrier Records, 2015)
* ''Garden of Diverging Paths'' (New Focus, 2016)
* ''Ecstatic Music: TAK plays Brook'' (New Focus, 2016)
* ''Virtutes Occultae'' (Self-release, 2017)
* ''Engage'' (New Focus, 2018)
* ''Old Fires Catch Old Buildings'' (New Focus, 2018)
* ''Streya'' (New Focus, 2018)
* ''The Privacy of Domestic Life'' (Centrediscs, 2018)
* ''A Howl That Was Also a Prayer'' (New Focus, 2020)
*''Star Maker Fragments'' (TAK editions, 2021)
See also
*
List of 21st-century classical composers
This is a list of 21st-century classical composers, sortable by name, year of birth and year of death.
The list includes composers who have made classical music since 2001. The 21st century is defined by the calendar rather than by any unifying ...
References
External links
Composer's official web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brook, Taylor
1985 births
Living people
Canadian composers
Canadian male composers
McGill University School of Music alumni