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Daniel Brewbaker
Daniel Brewbaker (b. 1951, Elgin, Illinois) began music lessons at age five, and formal training in music composition in his early teens. Since then his music has been performed by leading conductors, orchestras and soloists throughout the world.
Brewbaker’s most recent commissions include: a String Quartet for the 100th anniversary of the Juilliard School, performed April 11, 2006 at Alice Tully Hall, New York City; a Violin Concerto commissioned by Yuri Temirkanov and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for violinist Vadim Repin, which was premiered June 16, 2005 in Baltimore; a little innocence commissioned and premiered by the Children’s Aid Society Chorus on May 17 in New York; a Viola Concerto for Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists; and a choral song cycle Family Matters, for the inauguration of the Harlan Estate Winery in Napa Valley, California. Current commissions include a choral work for the Young Naperville Singers to commemorate the 175th Anniversary of the founding of Naperville, Illinois, and a work for brass choir of the Elgin Youth Symphony for their 30th Anniversary, both to be premiered on May 7, 2006 in Naperville and Elgin, Illinois, respectively, and a choral work based on Midwestern poems for The New Classic Singers, Lee Kesselman, Director, for their 25th Anniversary, to be premiered in November, 2006 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Brewbaker is the first American composer to have a work commissioned and performed by Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra and Chorus in St. Petersburg, Russia. Entitled The Poet, the Oratorio for mezzo-soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra was premiered in the Mariinski Theatre at the White Nights Festival on June 29, 1999. It was written in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin. Following the Kirov performance, Brewbaker composed a Cantata, Fields of Vision for Mezzo-soprano, Children’s Chorus and Orchestra, commissioned by the New York Chamber Symphony to commemorate the millennium. Gerard Schwarz premiered the work at Alice Tully Hall in New York on October 26, 2000. Also in the 2000/01 season, Brewbaker composed Cincinnatus Psalm, for Chorus and Orchestra, commissioned by the Cincinnati May Festival, which was conducted by James Conlon with the Cincinnati Symphony and May Festival Chorus on May 25, 2000. In addition Brewbaker composed a work commissioned by the Elgin Symphony Youth Orchestra, Fanfare 2000, whose premiere was conducted by Randall Swiggam on November 20, 1999 in Elgin, Illinois.
For the 2003-04 Daniel Brewbaker composed Dark Angel, commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the Seattle Symphony, and premiered by them on October 2, 2003, Now, commissioned and premiered by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus for the inauguration of Carnegie Hall’s new Zankel Auditorium on September 13, 2003, and The Brightening Air for Children’s Chorus and Orchestra, which was premiered by the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the New Millennium Festival Chorus, who commissioned the work, conducted by the composer on Nov. 2, 2003. Daniel Brewbaker also conducted the premieres of his orchestral versions of Now and little tree with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the Brooklyn Symphony on Dec. 21, 2003. They also premiered the Cantata Birdsong in June 2004 in Brooklyn. In addition two new ballets were choreographed to his music. Splendor… based on his Piano Concerto No. 2 was premiered at the Juilliard School on Dec. 11, 2003, with choreography by Jacqulyn Buglisi and Out of the Mist based on his Irish Cantata was premiered by the Jeanne Ruddy Dance Company on June 17th in Philadelphia. In 2004 Brewbaker’s song cycle The Journey was commissioned for and premiered by Frederica von Stade at the Napa Valley Opera House on August 4, 2004.
In 2002-2003 Brewbaker was commissioned to compose a major work for the renowned Irish singer Noirin Ni Riain with Mixed Chorus, Children’s Chorus, the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Uilleann Pipes by the New Millennium International Choral Festival. It was premiered at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland, July 27, 2002. On Sept. 2, 2002, Brewbaker premiered The Player Queen for Chorus and Piano in Napa, California. And he conducted the premiere of Psalm 51 for Organ, String Quartet and Mixed Chorus on March 25, 2003, at Holy Trinity Church in Elgin, Illinois, which commissioned the work to commemorate it’s 100th Anniversary.
In the 2001/2002 season Brewbaker’s Concerto No.2 for Piano and Orchestra was commissioned jointly by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Kent Nagano, and the Robert Mondavi Winery. It was premiered on Sept. 17, 2001, in Hertz Hall, Berkeley, California, with Pianist Jerry Kuderna. His work A Napa Wine was premiered by the a cappella vocal group Chanticleer on May 25, 2002, at Copia, The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, in Napa, California, which commissioned the work for the Center’s inaugural celebrations.
In June 1997, Brewbaker was Composer-in-Residence at the Spoleto USA Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, where his chamber music was featured. In June 1996, he held the same position at the Prince Albert Music Festival in Kauai. In recent seasons, Brewbaker’s music has been commissioned and performed by the Seattle Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, The Brooklyn Symphony, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and many others. In addition, soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Carter Brey, Kristine Jepson, and Richard Goode have performed his works in concert.
Daniel Brewbaker’s many awards include the Nadia Boulanger Award twice at the Ecole des Artes Americaines in Fontainebleau, (1983 & 1984) as well as first prize in the Lili Boulanger International Music Competition in Paris (1986) and Outstanding Young Men in America (1985). He was a Tanglewood Fellow (1982) and also won a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1978). He received an International Rotary Fellowship to work with Hans Werner Henze at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany (1980-82). In 1988 and 1994 Brewbaker was Composer-in-Residence at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. He also received a fellowship to attend the Acanthe Center for Contemporary Music in Avignon, France work with Pierre Boulez, and The MacArthur Endowed Fellowship at Yaddo. He has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico and the Liguria Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy. In the early 80s, Brewbaker was visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, where he collaborated with Hans Werner Henze on a new version of Monteverdi's opera II Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria. Brewbaker has recently been inducted into The Fox Valley (Illinois) Arts Hall of Fame.
Brewbaker received his Baccalaureate degree in composition from the University of Illinois and a Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Juilliard School, where his teachers included, respectively, Gordon Binkerd, Roger Sessions, and Elliott Carter. He pursued postgraduate work in Italy, France and Germany with Luciano Berio, Henri Dutilleux and Hans Werner Henze. Brewbaker has held teaching positions at Juilliard, Hunter, Queens Colleges (CUNY) and the Westminster Choir College, as well as in Rome. Daniel Brewbaker’s music is published by Boosey&Hawkes, Inc. He currently lives in New York City.
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