Aaron Brown

A far reaching and constant dialogue between past and present saturates the process of creating and listening to music. While some composers attempt a theoretical distance from prior praxis, the works of this artistic (practice-based) research folio aim to create new music that is explicitly of the present time but which draws upon, without being beholden to, early music sources and performance practices. This folio distinctively combines approaches to musical borrowing from historical sources; improvisation as method of generating musical content and formal structure; the recording studio as a site of experimentation and means of producing the final “text” of my compositions; and the use of historical instruments for their particular timbral and conceptual implications. The primary output will be an album-length audio recording of original musical works, with written exegesis providing context and analysis, supplemented by notated scores as appropriate.

Aaron Brown is a performer and composer focusing on historical instruments and repertoires, improvisation, and new music based on historical sources. Aaron studied at the Juilliard School, Mannes College and the City University of New York, and has worked extensively as a performer with many prominent artists and ensembles in Australia, the United States and Europe, including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (2009–present), Farinelli and the King (Broadway production), Early Music New York, New Vintage Baroque, Clarion Music Society, Opera Lafayette, Mark Morris Dance Group, Trinity Church Wall St, San Francisco Bach Choir, Four Nations ensemble, New York Collegium, American Classical Orchestra, the New Bach Players and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, BOZAR Brussels, Grand Teatre Luxembourg, the Arsenal in Metz, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities, City Recital Hall (Sydney), Melbourne Recital Centre,  Adelaide Town Hall and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Recording credits include two solo albums, and numerous other releases on the ABC Classics, Hyperion, Naxos, CD Accord, and Lyrichord labels. Aaron is a member of ASCAP, and recordings of his compositions and arrangements have been played on Radio National, ABC Classic and various public radio stations in the United States. In 2019, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to conduct research in Italy and Greece examining performance practices of various early music repertoires. He began PhD studies in composition at UQ in late 2020.