Bruce Brubaker is a musician, artist, concert pianist, and writer from the United States.
Brubaker's work uses and combinesWestern classical music withpostmodern artistic, literary, theatrical, and philosophical ideas.[1][2] He is associated with the 21st century revitalization of classical music (sometimes termed "alternative classical").[3] With over 150 million plays onSpotify, Brubaker reaches a large music audience online. Brubaker's recordings have been remixed by prominent electronic musicians, includingPlaid,Max Cooper,Akufen,Francesco Tristano,Laurel Halo,Olga Bell,Arandel, and others.[4][5][6]The New York Times wrote: "Few pianists approachPhilip Glass's music with the level of devotion and insight that Bruce Brubaker brings to it, precisely the reason he gets so much expressivity out of it."[7] He has performed at London'sBarbican Hall, thePhilharmonie de Paris, New York'sDavid Geffen Hall, and atBOZAR in Brussels. He has created and performed multidisciplinary artworks at theFestival de La Roque-d'Anthéron,[8] theInstitute of Contemporary Art, Boston,[9] theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey,[10] theIrving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival,[11]Columbia University,[12] and at theJuilliard School. Brubaker is an advisor toYamaha's artificial intelligence project, "Dear Glenn".[13]
Brubaker has published articles about music andsemiotics,[14] and performance as research.[15] His blog, "PianoMorphosis", appears at ArtsJournal.com.[16] Brubaker advocates the treatment of written music as "text". He has sometimes performed and recorded new music without the direct input of the composer.[17] Brubaker has said: "The piano is a tool that can be used in different ways. Classical music can be taken as material for new art."[18] Brubaker has argued that technology is returning music to a pre-composer condition, and equalizing or blurring the roles of listener, performer, and composer. In a conversation withPhilip Glass at Princeton, Brubaker referred to "the demise of the composer". Brubaker said: "Now, it's becoming a little less clear who creates a work, who plays the work, and who listens to the work. Those roles used to seem to be so clear – you know,Beethoven wrote it,Brendel played it, and the audience atCarnegie heard it. But I don't think that quite works anymore."[19]
Brubaker was born inDes Moines, Iowa, and educated at theJuilliard School,[20] where his primary teacher was pianistJacob Lateiner.[21][22] At Juilliard, he also studied withMilton Babbitt andFelix Galimir, and withLouis Krasner atTanglewood. As a concert pianist, he has appeared performingMozart with theLos Angeles Philharmonic at theHollywood Bowl,[23]Haydn at theWigmore Hall,[24]Alvin Curran atKings Place in London,[25]Messiaen andPhilip Glass at New York City's(Le) Poisson Rouge nightclub,[26]Brahms at Leipzig'sGewandhaus, and extemporizing simultaneous performances with his former studentFrancesco Tristano[27] and jazz legendRan Blake.
He received a fellowship grant from theNational Endowment for the Arts,[28] and was named Young Musician of the Year byMusical America. Brubaker was aNational Merit Scholar. He has performed at New York'sZankel Hall, Antwerp's Queen Elizabeth Hall,[20] theGaîté lyrique in Paris, theTanglewood Festival, and theSónar festival inBarcelona.
Brubaker's solo piano recordings survey a range of American music by Philip Glass,[5]John Adams,Alvin Curran,William Duckworth,Meredith Monk,Nico Muhly, andJohn Cage.[29] Brubaker has premiered piano music by Cage,Mark-Anthony Turnage,Nico Muhly,[30] andDaron Hagen. He has collaborated with Meredith Monk.[31] In 2012, Brubaker, together withUrsula Oppens, recorded Monk's piano music.[32] His albumCodex includes multiple readings ofTerry Riley's Keyboard Study No. 2 and Renaissance keyboard pieces from theCodex Faenza. Brubaker's album withMax Cooper,Glassforms, is based on live performances at Cité de la musique in Paris that combined piano music by Glass, improvisation, and electronic sounds produced using a randomizing algorithm controlled by MIDI signals coming from the live piano performance.Eno Piano is Brubaker's solo reworking of ambient music byBrian Eno. The project utilizes electro-magnetic "bows" producing long tones by making strings inside a piano vibrate for extended time periods.
For nine years, Brubaker was a faculty member at the Juilliard School[33] where he originated an interdisciplinary performance program in 2001, producing new work with dancers, actors, and musicians. Students from Brubaker's piano repertory class at Juilliard include many distinguished pianists:Francesco Tristano,Simone Dinnerstein,Shai Wosner,Helen Huang,Lera Auerbach, Vicky Chow,David Greilsammer, Elizabeth Joy Roe, Greg Anderson,Vikingur Olafsson,Stewart Goodyear, Adam Nieman, Soyeon Lee, Terrence Wilson, Christopher Guzman, Eric Huebner. At Juilliard, he gave public presentations withPhilip Glass,Meredith Monk, andMilton Babbitt.[34]
In 2000, he produced "Piano Century", an 11-concert retrospective of 20th-century piano music.[35] Since 2004, Brubaker has been a faculty member at Boston'sNew England Conservatory, where he has curated several projects in collaboration with theBoston Symphony andHarvard University.[34][36] At New England Conservatory, Brubaker has appeared in public conversations withAlvin Curran,Meredith Monk,Tim Page,Salvatore Sciarrino andRussell Sherman. In 2005, Brubaker became Chair of Piano at New England Conservatory. With Brubaker’s leadership, including new piano faculty hiring, New England Conservatory became the dominant piano training institution in the world. Notable pianists studying at the conservatory who emerged on world stages following 2005 include,Lukáš Vondráček,George Li,Eric Lu,Yunchan Lim,Aristo Sham, Yutong Sun, Evren Ozel,Clayton Stephenson, and Saehyun Kim. Brubaker also serves as Curator of Piano Programming at New England Conservatory.
In 1994, Brubaker founded SummerMusic, now held atDrake University in his hometown of Des Moines; he returns annually to lead it.[37]
Brubaker records forECM,InFiné,Arabesque,[38] andBedroom Community.
John Adams: “Pat’s Aria” (fromNixon in China) (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno:Music for Airports (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker and Simon Hanes)
Brian Eno:By This River (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno:The Chill Air (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno:The Big Ship (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Brian Eno:Failing Light (transcribed for piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Philip Glass: “Knee Play 4” (fromEinstein on the Beach) (transcribed for solo piano by Bruce Brubaker)
Philip Glass: “The Poet Acts” (from ‘The Hours’ (transcribed for solo piano by Bruce Brubaker)
(Gustav Mahler:)Bruce Brubaker’s Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (piano, violin, viola, cello)
Olivier Messiaen: Prelude No. 1, “La colombe” (transcribed for flute and piano by Bruce Brubaker, forPaula Robison)
Meredith Monk:Totentanz (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Meredith Monk:Parlour Games (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Meredith Monk:Urban March (Shadow) (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
Meredith Monk:Tower (transcribed for 2 pianos by Bruce Brubaker)
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