Stephen Brown (composer)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Stephen Brown


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Born = August 16 1948
Origin = Nottingham, England
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Occupation = Composer, Conductor, Teacher
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URL = http://www.stephenbrown.ca/
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Stephen John Brown (born 1948) is a Canadian composer. He holds ARCT Diplomas in both Theory and Composition from the Royal Conservatory of Music and is a Associate of the Canadian Music Centre [ [http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=62680&by=B http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=composer.FA_dsp_biography&authpeopleid=62680&by=B] Canadian Music Centre] . Brown is Department Head of Theory and Composition at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, British Columbia [ [http://vcm.bc.ca/faculty-theory.htm http://vcm.bc.ca/faculty-theory.htm] Victoria Conservatory of Music ] , and a senior marker and examination designer for both the Victoria Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto. He has twice served as a juror for the British Columbia Arts Council (performance & composition) and is a clinician and adjudicator in Western Canada.

His compositions include a symphony, a piano concerto, three song cycles, two overtures, two suites for orchestra, a canticle for soprano, chorus and string orchestra, an elegy for soprano and string orchestra, a missa brevis, and many chamber and solo works. Recently Brown has completed his second and third suites for solo cello, a woodwind quintet revision, and a commission for soprano Jenny Such for a song cycle for soprano and marimba. Future projects include a 17 movement work for piano solo, a piano quintet, and a concerto for violin, viola, and orchestra. He has taken a particular interest in pedagogical works, writing seven books of student pieces for piano, as well as, a book each for violin and flute. He has had many works performed at orchestral and solo concerts.

Performances include those by Erich Kunzel and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver and Victoria Symphony Orchestras and the Sidney Classical Orchestra (formerly the St. Cecilia Orchestra) in Sidney, British Columbia, of which he is the artistic director and conductor. Under his direction, the Sidney Classical Orchestra has premiered a significant number of contemporary works by various composers. He occasionally conducts the Victoria Conservatory Senior Orchestra and Chorus. Concert programs have included Handel: Judas Maccabeaus, Haydn: Mass in Time of War, Beethoven: Five Piano Concertos and the Choral Fantasy, Mozart: Flute concerto and Piano Concertos, Haydn: St. Cecilia Mass (2003), Mozart concertos (2006), Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Ah! Perfido, Violin Romance in F major (2008).

Besides his love of classical music, he takes an active interest in early jazz, playing banjo with the Bastion Jazz Band in Victoria, British Columbia. [ [http://www.stephenbrown.ca www.stephenbrown.ca] Composer's personal website]

Biography

Stephen Brown was born to working class parents in Nottingham, England. Due to the shortage of pilots at the beginning of World War II, his father was able to become a RAF fighter pilot, training in Canada and Oklahoma, USA. After the war, in order to better their fortunes, the family immigrated in 1952 to Montreal. His father was employed as a salesman of typewriters, and later, in Kitchener, Ontario, after 1958, of office supplies and time equipment. Brown's parents purchased him an electric guitar when he was 13, and when he turned 16 he left school to further his musical career. He became a furniture mover.

Moving to Toronto that same year Brown eked out a living doing various menial jobs, and occasionally traveled throughout North America. When he turned 21 he became a taxi driver, an occupation that helped support him, along with private music teaching and playing piano in bands in the traditional New Orleans style, for the next 20 years. As an adult, he attended the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto and graduated with diplomas in both composition and theory. In order to better his fortunes, he moved in 1990, to Sidney, British Columbia. He began teaching at the Victoria Conservatory of Music in 1993 and became head of the Theory and Composition Department in 1996. He has had two marriages and has four children.

Selected Works

Orchestral

*Canadian Folk Song Overture
*The Fife and Fiddle Suite
*The Northern Journey, a symphony in five movements
*Black Eyed Susan
*The Carol Suite
*Piano Concerto
*Sunrise Serenade
*On the Idle Hill of Summer

Voice and Orchestra

*MAXWELL, Larry Douglas

Vocal Music

*Chinese Love Lyrics, a seven song cycle
*Where the Geese Go Barefoot, a five song cycle
*Shadow of a Leaf, a ten song cycle sung as one movement

Chorus

*Canticle of the Sun, with string orchestra and solo soprano
*Alleluia
*St. Elizabeth Missa Brevis

Chamber Music

*Suite for Woodwinds
*Six Violin (or Viola) Duets
*On the Idle Hill of Summer
*I See the Moon

Solo Piano

*Thirteen Canadian Folk Songs for Piano
*Six Pentatonic Preludes
*Five Extremities
*Bon Bons for Beginners
*Giant Things
*Boeckmann Toccatas
*18th Century Suites • Book 1
*West Coast Sundries
*Seconda Pratica

Other Solo Instruments

*Takkakaw Falls, a suite, versions for either flute, violin, viola, or cello
*Four Romances and a Lunch, violin
*Fire, suite for cello
*There Was a Lady in the East, a suite, version for either violin, viola, or cello

References

External Links

* [http://www.stephenbrown.ca www.stephenbrown.ca]