Taylor Brook
{{Short description|Canadian composer}}
File:Taylor-Brook-Composer-born-1985.jpg
Taylor Brook (born 1985) is a composer of contemporary classical music who currently resides in New York City.
Education
Brook was born in Edmonton but grew up in Toronto, where he attended Etobicoke School of the Arts, a specialized arts-academic public high school. His studies included guitar and violin. He then studied at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he completed his Bachelor of Music degree in 2007 and earned his Master's Degree in Music Composition. For his thesis he composed Mitya, a piece for solo clarinet with 18 musicians and live electronics. It premiered on April 14, 2010, with Mark Bradley of the Portmantô Ensemble as soloist and Denys Bouliane conducting the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. His teachers included Brian Cherney, Denys Bouliane, Luc Brewaeys, Ana Sokolović, John Rea, and Sean Ferguson. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Columbia University in 2018 and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020.{{Cite web |title=Columbia Alumni Composers You Should Know (and Stream) |url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/columbia-alumni-composers-you-should-know-and-stream |access-date=2023-03-16 |website=Columbia Magazine |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Taylor Brook |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/taylor-brook/ |access-date=2023-03-16 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |language=en-US}}
Career and compositions
In 2008, he spent two months in Kolkata studying at Bhattacharya School of Universal Music with Hindustani musician Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, studying raga on the chaturangui, a many-stringed slide guitar of Bhattacharya's invention. This exposure influenced subsequent works including his 2009 composition Vocalise, for solo violin accompanied by a drone playing a continuous tone 14 cents flat of F{{music|sharp}}.[http://taylorbrookmusic.com/scores/Brook-Vocalise.pdf Vocalise - Performance instructions] taylorbrookmusic.com The piece won the 2010 Lee Ettelson Composer's Award from Composers, Inc., whose artistic director is Robert Greenberg.[http://composersinc.blogspot.com/2010/09/composers-inc-presents-new-american.html?m=1 Composers, Inc. presents new American Music]
Another 2009 composition, Murder Ballad, won the coup de cœur prize from le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.
His composition It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there won the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada Young Composers Award for 2010.
For the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne's FORUM 2010, he composed music to accompany the 2010 version of the Les trains où vont les choses series of films by Nathalie Bujold. This piece was awarded the Prix Public and second prize from the jury.[http://www.palaismontcalm.ca/nouvelles/nem-les-meilleurs-moments-10e-forum-157 Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne - Les meilleurs moments du 10e Forum international des jeunes compositeurs (Highlights of the 10th International Forum for Young Composers)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529234135/http://www.palaismontcalm.ca/nouvelles/nem-les-meilleurs-moments-10e-forum-157 |date=2012-05-29 }}[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AilgmYdlFiQ Compositeurs FORUM 2010 NEM] - le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (The phrase Les trains où vont les choses is a play on words — "le train de choses" is an idiom for "the way things go" or "that's how it goes." The title is pluralized to reflect the grid of images in the video. The double meaning is from the fact it is filmed from a train window.)
His 2011 composition Against the Morning was commissioned by the Banff Centre. It was inspired by the third movement (Summer Morning by a Lake) of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra.
In 2011, Brook studied orchestral composition with Luc Brewaeys in Brussels and Quatuor Bozzini recorded his piece Florescences for their album À chacun sa miniature.
The ArtSpring Arts Center in Salt Spring Island announced in May 2012 that it would host a residency for Brook and Quatuor Bozzini to develop and perform a new evening-length work over the period August 1–7, 2012. The process was captured by Quebec videographer Nathalie Bujold and the audience received a preview of the result on August 4, and participated in its creation.[http://www.quatuorbozzini.ca/concerts.e/2012/tour/29667.php Taylor Brook - Quatuor Bozzini - Nathalie Bujold (Quatuor Bozzini)][http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/taylor-brook-quatuor-bozzini-natalie-bujo/ Taylor Brook – Quatuor Bozzini – Natalie Bujo (Harbour Living)][http://artspring.ca/event/taylor-brook-quatuor-bozzini-natalie-bujold/ Taylor Brook – Quatuor Bozzini – Natalie Bujold (ArtSpring)][http://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/entertainment/161350875.html Summer schedule promises to steam up ArtSpring stage (Gulf Islands Driftwood)] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130125110954/http://www.gulfislandsdriftwood.com/entertainment/161350875.html |date=2013-01-25 }}
Brook was a finalist in the 2012 American Composers Forum Finale National Composition Contest September 14, 2012.[http://www.composersforum.org/program/2012-finale-national-composition-contest 2012 Finale National Composition Contest] His entry Arrhythmia was described as "a strikingly modern re-imagining of Mahler’s ninth symphony, lush and ethereal"{{cite web
|url = http://composersforum.org/discover/articles/acf-and-makemusic-announce-2012-finale-contest-winner
|title = ACF and MakeMusic announce 2012 Finale Contest winner
|accessdate = April 14, 2013
}}
He is the technical director of TAK Ensemble, a quintet that performs contemporary classical music, including Brook's.
Discography
- Give My Regards to 116th Street (Carrier Records, 2015){{Cite web|url=https://carrierrecords.bandcamp.com/album/give-my-regards-to-116th-street|title=Give My Regards to 116th Street, by Kobe Van Cauwenberghe|website=Carrier Records|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Garden of Diverging Paths (New Focus, 2016){{Cite web|url=https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/mivos-quartet-garden-of-diverging-paths/|title=Mivos String Quartet: Garden of Diverging Paths {{!}} Catalogue|website=New Focus Recordings|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Ecstatic Music: TAK plays Brook (New Focus, 2016){{Cite web|url=https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/ecstatic-music-tak-ensemble-plays-taylor-brook/|title=Ecstatic Music: TAK Ensemble plays Taylor Brook {{!}} Catalogue|website=New Focus Recordings|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Virtutes Occultae (Self-release, 2017){{Cite web|url=https://taylorbrook.bandcamp.com/album/virtutes-occultae|title=virtutes Occultae, by Taylor Brook|website=Taylor Brook|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Engage (New Focus, 2018){{Cite web|url=https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/taylor-brook-vocalise-2009|title=Taylor Brook: Vocalise (2009), by Josh Modney|website=New Focus Recordings|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Old Fires Catch Old Buildings (New Focus, 2018){{Cite web|url=https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/loadbang-old-fires-catch-old-buildings/|title=loadbang: old fires catch old buildings {{!}} Catalogue|website=New Focus Recordings|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Streya (New Focus, 2018){{Cite web|url=https://newfocusrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/streya|title=Streya, by Olivia De Prato|website=New Focus Recordings|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- The Privacy of Domestic Life (Centrediscs, 2018){{Cite web|url=https://www.musiccentre.ca/node/151618|title=The Privacy of Domestic Life|last=Canadienne|first=Canadian Music Centre {{!}} Centre de Musique|website=www.musiccentre.ca|language=en|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- A Howl That Was Also a Prayer (New Focus, 2020){{Cite web|url=https://www.newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/ekmeles-a-howl-that-was-also-a-prayer/|title=Ekmeles: A Howl, That Was Also A Prayer {{!}} Catalogue|website=New Focus Recordings|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-07}}
- Star Maker Fragments (TAK editions, 2021)
See also
References
{{Reflist|3|refs=
|url = http://www.music.mcgill.ca/dcs/collaborators/T_Brook.php
|title = Taylor Brook (Bio) 2010
|publisher = McGill University
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
|url = http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~mckenzie/T_Brook.php
|title = Taylor Brook (Bio) 2008
|publisher = McGill University
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
|url = http://www.composersinc.org/taylorbrook-notes.html
|title = Taylor Brook Vocalise
|publisher = composersinc.org
|date = 2010-09-10
}}
|url = http://www.portmanto.ca/2010/09/taylor-brook-and-marielle-groven-in.html
|title = Taylor Brook and Marielle Groven in the 19th Annual SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers
|date = August 26, 2010
|publisher = portmanto.ca
}}
|url = http://www.socanfoundation.ca/pdfs/2010foundationwinners_en.pdf
|title = SOCAN FOUNDATION PRESENTS ANNUAL YOUNG COMPOSERS AWARDS
|date = August 26, 2010
|publisher = Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
}}
|url = http://www.banffcentre.org/blog/2012/03/03/behind-the-music-composers-and-commissions/
|title = Behind the music: composers and commissions
|author = Hubley, Alexa
|date = March 3, 2012
|publisher = Banff Centre
}}
|url = http://taylorbrookmusic.com/works/againstthemorning.html
|title = Against the Morning (2011) - Harmonium and ensemble
|author = Brook, Taylor
}}
|url = http://taylorbrookmusic.com/bio.html
|title = Official Bio
|publisher = taylorbrookmusic.com
}}
|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g409G02U1qg
|title = Composer Taylor Brook, Vocalise 2009, Mira Benjamin, violin
|publisher = Composers, Inc.
|date = October 19, 2010
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
|url = http://www.cirmmt.mcgill.ca/activities/live-cirmmt/nem-forum/forum-composer-biographies
|title = 2010 Forum Composers Music & Video Art
|publisher = McGill University
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
|year = 2010
}}
|url = http://www.taylorbrookmusic.com/works/murderballad.html
|title = Murder Ballad
|publisher = taylorbrookmusic.com
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
|url = http://www.taylorbrookmusic.com/works/mitya.html
|title = Miyta
|publisher = taylorbrookmusic.com
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
|url = http://www.taylorbrookmusic.com/works/florescences.html
|title = Florescences
|publisher = taylorbrookmusic.com
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
| title = À chacun sa miniature
| oclc = 778414234
}}
|url = http://www.actuellecd.com/en/cat/cqb_1113/
|title = À chacun sa miniature, CQB 1113
|publisher = Collection QB
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
|year = 2011
}}
|url = http://music.columbia.edu/columbiacomposers/?page_id=827
|title = Taylor Brook
|publisher = Columbia University, New York, Department of Music
|accessdate = July 21, 2012
}}
| title = About TAK Ensemble
| author = TAK Ensemble
| work = TAKensemble.com
| date =
| accessdate = 2016-04-11
| url = http://www.takensemble.com/home/#ecstaticmusic
| quote = This album, Ecstatic Music, will highlight one of our most esteemed colleagues, and newly appointed Technical Director, Taylor Brook.
}}
}}
External links
- [http://taylorbrookmusic.com Composer's official web site]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brook, Taylor}}
Category:Canadian male composers
Category:McGill University School of Music alumni
Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni