Todd Brief: Canto for flute

Todd Brief's self-description reveals a composer who has established himself confidently amid the vast spectrum of compositional styles available in these times. Early on he determined his compositional techniques, "a physical and learned intuitive process" stemming from vocal and keyboard improvisation. "After repeatedly playing my sketched materials, compositional decisions emerge which become engraved in my memory as the work itself," he explains. The music that results strikes the listener with its emotional impact and intensity. Born in New York City in 1953, Brief played a variety of instruments at an early age, most seriously the piano, and began composing at the age of fifteen. He continued formal studies in composition with Ralph Shapey in Chicago, and earned degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music and Harvard University in Boston, where he worked with Donald Martino, William T. McKinley, Gunther Schuller, Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner. Further studies were undertaken through various fellowships to the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and the Darmst 臈 ter Ferienkurse fr Neue Musik, and with Isang Yun in West Berlin through the German Academic Exchange (D.A.A.D.). His compositions, written for a large variety of vocal and instrumental ensembles, have received over thirty awards and prizes including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Prix de Rome, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Goddard Lieberson Award, "Young Generation in Europe" Prize from the City of Cologne, "Frderungspreis" from the City of Stuttgart, Koussevitzky and Fromm Foundation commissions, and both ASCAP and BMI awards. His works are performed throughout the United States and Europe, at major contemporary music festivals and by orchestras such as the I.S.C.M. World Music Days, Gaudeamus MusicWeek, Darmst 臈 ter Ferienkurse fr Neue Musik, Fromm Festival, the Rome Radio Orchestra and the American Composers Orchestra.