Courtney Bryan signs exclusive contract with Boosey & Hawkes
Acclaimed composer Courtney Bryan joins the Boosey & Hawkes roster in March 2023. Her substantial catalog includes orchestral, vocal, and chamber works that have been championed by major performers and orchestras, including Branford Marsalis, Jennifer Koh, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Philadelphia.
“A skilled composer of considerable imagination” — Chicago Tribune
“Her music speaks to us with urgency and honesty.” — Carlos Miguel Prieto, Conductor
Boosey & Hawkes is pleased to announce the signing of New Orleans–based composer Courtney Bryan to its roster. Bryan’s acclaimed compositions for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and voice have recently been commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She is currently the composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia and Creative Partner with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
> WATCH: "Meet Courtney Bryan"
> EXPLORE: Works by Courtney Bryan
Bryan, who is also an acclaimed jazz pianist, composes music that draws on a rich diversity of traditions, including gospel and jazz. She states, “When I compose, the process involves combining my many influences, in my own voice, in everything I create.” Her work Gathering Song, recently premiered by bass-baritone soloist Ryan Speedo Green and the New York Philharmonic, was praised as “thrilling in its polish and expressive range” by the New York Times, which detailed: “There are fillips of Afro-Cuban rhythm and moments of thick orchestral modernism, as well as traces of stentorian, post-Minimalist American opera … Though prismatic, it feels carefully woven as it touches on gospel and jazz traditions.”
Other recent works include Blessed (2020) for Opera Philadelphia, a digital commission featuring footage from New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia woven together with improvising piano and voices; Carmen Jazz Suite (2020) for saxophonist Branford Marsalis and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a reimagined and empowered portrait of Bizet’s famous protagonist; and Syzygy (2019) for violinist Jennifer Koh and the Chicago Sinfonietta.
Bryan’s new piano concerto, House of Pianos, salutes prominent pianists across many different styles and eras. It was premiered in a chamber version with the LA Phil New Music Group, led by Paolo Bortolameolli on February 7, and will be premiered in a full orchestra version on May 12-13 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Louis Langrée, featuring Bryan as piano soloist.
A 2020 United States Artists Fellow and 2019–2020 recipient of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition, Bryan earned degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Rutgers University, and completed her doctorate at Columbia University with advisor George Lewis. She completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Bryan is currently the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University.
Steven Lankenau, Senior Vice President of Boosey & Hawkes states: “Courtney is an American original. From the funereal blues of her Requiem to the stride piano in House of Pianos, the sounds of New Orleans—a city of rich, deep culture—is unmistakably present in her music. Boosey & Hawkes is proud to have her join our roster of distinguished composers.”
Courtney Bryan states: “I am very honored to sign with Boosey & Hawkes. It is exciting to join such a prestigious roster of composers from the past and present, and I look forward to working with the team at Boosey & Hawkes to help expand the reach of my music and to care for the life of my works. I look forward to the journey together.”
> WATCH: "Meet Courtney Bryan"
> EXPLORE: Works by Courtney Bryan
For more information about Courtney Bryan, visit:
www.boosey.com/Bryan
www.courtneybryan.com
About Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes, a Concord company, is the world’s leading publisher of contemporary classical music. Its blue-chip catalogue of 20th-century masters includes Bartók, Bernstein, Britten, Copland, Prokofieff, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Strauss and Stravinsky alongside an eminent front list of composers that includes John Adams, Harrison Birtwistle, Unsuk Chin, Anna Clyne, Brett Dean, Detlev Glanert, Osvaldo Golijov, HK Gruber, Karl Jenkins, Elena Kats-Chernin, Magnus Lindberg, James MacMillan, Steve Reich, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Eric Whitacre.
> www.boosey.com
About Concord Music Publishing
Concord Music Publishing is a global, full-service, independent music publisher offering bespoke creative support from its A&R, Synchronization and Marketing teams and diligent administration by its in-house Copyright, Licensing, Income Tracking and Royalty departments. Headquartered in Nashville with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Berlin and Melbourne, Concord Music Publishing owns or administers more than 800,000 copyrighted musical works. Spanning nearly two centuries of song, through a vast array of genres and territories, Concord represents the world’s most celebrated songwriters, composers and lyricists.
> www.concord.com
For press inquiries, contact:
Carol Ann Cheung
Director, Publicity & Marketing, Boosey & Hawkes
[email protected]
212-358-5361
For programming inquiries, contact:
Elizabeth Blaufox
Director, Promotion, Boosey & Hawkes
[email protected]
212-358-5365
Photo: Taylor Hunter
