BIOGRAPHY

His works have been performed at the Festival of New American Music (FENAM), Festival of the Arts, Center for Contemporary Art and in concert series in the U.S. and Germany. In 2004 and 2005 his new music ensemble SEM-G was featured at FENAM and included the premieres of On the Essence of Light and Killer.  In 2006 Jubilate was premiered by Vox Musica to rave review. His film credits include Maltese Murder Mystery (2007), Doilie’s Diner (2006), The Bluff (2006), Turn Over (2005) and Suburban Youth (2003) and have been screened at Sacramento Film Festival, Staten Island Film Festival, Long Island Film Festival, Florida Film Festival and Hawaii Film Festival.

Since 2008 Brent has served as assistant conductor to Maestro Paul Nadler, for productions of La Traviata (2009), The Rake’s Progress (2009), Don Pasquale (2008) and Lucia di Lammermoor (2008) at the International Vocal Arts Institute directed by Joan Dornemann.  He has also served as assistant conductor with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra for concerts at the Israeli New Opera House and Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv.  He is currently an assistant conductor for Astoria Symphony in New York.  Recent performances include Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Liz Bacher and Appalachian Spring with The Martha Graham Dance Company.

Brent studied piano, percussion, composition, orchestration and theory at CSU, Sacramento and the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen. His primary teachers include Stephen Blumberg, Leo Eylar, Jurgend Weimar, Lorna Peters and Dan Kennedy. He has also participated in workshops with George Crumb, Lucas Ligeti, Pauline Oliveros, Andrew Imbrie and Bernard Rands.  He currently studies opera conducting with Maestro Paul Nadler of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Brent has also taught electronic music at Sacramento City College and owned a music production facility in Sacramento. He continues to teach and coach privately in New York.

Brent will soon be releasing selections of his electronic music, a suite for amplified flute called Colorform, a string quartet and a song cycle for orchestra and soprano based on poems by Pablo Neruda.

Compositional Outlook
Much of Brent’s creative inspiration stems from observing naturally occurring patterns that emerge from chaotic systems in nature. In this way, many of his pieces investigate the movement, patterns, and social organization of animals, fractal geometry and the relationship between the macro and micro aspects of the natural world.

His current compositional work is concerned with music cognition and the auditory system’s perception of sound events as emotional experience, with an emphasis on relating this to the overall human experience of music.  Thus, his music is marked by a hybridized sound of historically derived material molded through experimentation in technology and sensory stimulation.

Other Areas of Interest
In June of 2002 Brent was invited to Africa to track and record primate species at the Makerere University Biological Field Station in the Kibale National Forest, Uganda. During this time he studied the traditional music and indigenous drumming of Uganda. These experiences culminated in the release of two CD's of indigenous music recorded in the field, and the archival of all, but one, primate species found in Uganda.  His primate recordings have been used in multiple biological research projects in the US and Canada.  Brent has returned to Uganda to study and record, and in 2004 was invited to perform with Ndere Troupe in Kampala.

His experiences in Uganda led to his founding of The Village Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of music from around the world. Through his work with Thevillagefoundation, and other non-profit organizations, he has imported hundreds of musical instruments, baskets and traditional art directly from Ugandan artists, and produced recordings of music and nature sounds from Uganda and western music ensembles. Thevillagefoundation was pivotal in the founding of Vox Musica, an all women’s chamber choir based in Sacramento.

His dedication to this mission has led to speaking engagements at CSU, Sonoma, UC Davis, CSU, Sacramento and Sierra College as well as many global awareness festivals.

Other Research
In 2006 Brent began independent research into the psychological and physiological effects of sound on biological systems.  He is currently experimenting with acoustic phenomenon, and has assisted in brain-music research.

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updated September 2009