Brett Dean
Although he came to composition only in midlife, after a successful career as an orchestral violist, Brett Dean has become one of Australia's most widely performed composers. Writing for traditional classical instrumentation, he has issued works in nearly all the major genres.
Dean was born in Brisbane, Australia, on October 23, 1961, and was raised and educated exclusively in that city. He took up the violin at eight, later switching to viola. Dean attended the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, studying with Elizabeth Morgan and John Curro, and he graduated in 1982 with the school's medal for highest-achieving student of the year. He had already won an ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Award the previous year. Dean moved to Berlin in 1984, winning a place in the Berlin Philharmonic as a violist in 1985, remaining with the ensemble until 1999. In 2000, Dean returned to Australia and, for a time, pursued a career as a freelance musician, not only composing and playing viola but also taking administrative posts with the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals and the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. He continued to play the viola and premiered his own Viola Concerto in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; he has also played the work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hamburg Philharmonic, and Orchestre National de Lyon, among other ensembles. His works often draw on extramusical inspirations such as environmental issues (in Water Music), information technology, or the history of music. Perhaps his most successful work is Carlo (1997), for strings, sampler, and tape; it is inspired by the music of Italian Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo and has been performed some 50 times. Some of Dean's work incorporates electronics, while other works are for traditional instrumentation, often demanding mastery of great rhythmic complexity from performers. Dean's Gneixendorf Music - A Winter Journey, which includes a muffled piano in part of the work, was commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota and premiered in February of 2020. The work refers to the small Austrian village where Beethoven lived for several months near the end of his life.
Dean's compositions have been garlanded with a variety of Australian awards, and also the 2009 Grawemeyer Award from the University of Louisville in Kentucky. More than 40 of them have been recorded on such labels as Chandos, ABC Classics, and Canary Classics.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Similar artists
Discography
11 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
-
Dean: Epitaphs & String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Doric String Quartet, Brett Dean, Allison Bell
Kwartetten - Released by Chandos on 1 sep. 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brett Dean: Epitaphs & String Quartets
Doric String Quartet, Allison Bell, Brett Dean
Kamermuziek - Released by Chandos on 1 sep. 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dean, B.: Viola Concerto / 12 Angry Men / Intimate Decisions / Komarov's Fall
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 1 jun. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: String & Clarinet Quintet
Brandis Quartett, Karl Leister, Brett Dean
Kamermuziek - Released by Nimbus Records on 1 aug. 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Night Window
Paul Dean, Stephen Emmerson, Brett Dean
Kamermuziek - Released by ABC Classic on 22 jun. 2018
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Orchestral Works
Brett Dean, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Werner Andreas Albert
Klassiek - Released by CPO on 1 jan. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ross Harris: Symphony No. 4 & Cello Concerto
Li-wei Qin, Robert Ashworth, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Garry Walker, Brett Dean
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 28 apr. 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: String Quintet, Op. 111 - Bruckner: String Quintet
Kamermuziek - Released by Nimbus Records on 1 jan. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Kammermusik, Op. 46, Nos. 1-2 / Organ Concerto
Brett Dean, Rosalinde Haas, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Werner Andreas Albert
Klassiek - Released by CPO on 1 jan. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dean, B.: Water Music / Pastoral Symphony / The Siduri Dances / Carlo
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 25 aug. 2009
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brett Dean: Shadow Music
Svenska Kammarorkestern, Brett Dean
Klassiek - Released by BIS on 3 jun. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo