Young American conductor Brandon Keith Brown is quickly garnering international attention. As a laureate of the 2012 Sir Georg Solti Competition for Conductors, his final performance found him “…the stand-out audience favorite…” (Norman Lebrecht, Slipped Disc) leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in performance. In April 2013, Brown made a critically acclaimed European debut with the 351-year-old Badische Staatskapelle. One critic remarked “…the grueling program was brilliantly mastered by the young conductor.” (Midou Grossman, klassik.com) Selected by the Vienna Philharmonic as winner of 2011 Ansbacher Fellowship, he was in residence at The Salzburg Festival, and conducted Vienna Philharmonic members for two summers in the opera camps for youth. In February 2012, he made his New York debut with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra.
Debuts this season include the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Neue Philharmonie-Westfalen Orchestra. Orchestras conducted in concert include the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Badische Staatskapelle, members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, Yakima Chamber Orchestra, the Macon Sinfonia, the Astoria Symphony and the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. Other orchestras conducted include the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Croatian Radio and Television Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Baltimore Symphony, and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra.
Brown conducted at The 2010 Castleton Festival in Virginia USA under the direction of Lorin Maazel and at the 2009 American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, with David Zinman. Versatile in opera, Brown has been music director for Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, Suor Angelica, assistant for Britten’s Albert Herring and studied Puccini’s Il Trittico with Lorin Maazel. Previously, he served as cover conductor for the Baltimore Symphony, Assistant Conductor at the Peabody Institute and assistant conductor/fellow of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra.
Winner of the Peabody Career Grant, Mr. Brown holds a Master’s of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Initially trained as a violinist, he is a pupil of Roland and Almita Vamos. Primary conducting mentors and teachers include David Zinman, Lorin Maazel and Gustav Meier.