Biography
Brent Chancellor is an American conductor, composer, and music curator transforming how classical music is programmed, perceived, and experienced. Recognized for his innovative approach to performance and artful command of both traditional and contemporary music, he currently serves as Curator of New Music at Artpark, Founding Music Director of the LUX Initiative, and Executive Director and Assistant Conductor of the Reading Symphony Orchestra.
A sought-after guest conductor, Brent has led some of the nation’s most notable orchestras, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Festival Orchestra Napa Valley, and New Jersey Symphony, and appeared in renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Symphony Space, the DiMenna Center, the Israeli Opera House, Kleinhans Music Hall, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Most recently, Brent’s groundbreaking commissioning and regenerative album collaboration with Artpark and ONNA Sounds, The Secret Symphony of Plants, has earned national attention for its unique use of plant bioelectronics, being featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and celebrated for its “mesmerizing beauty” and “rich sonic tapestry.”
Praised by composer Marcos Balter as “an ideal podium artist for the 21st century”, Brent is shaping the future of classical music through genre-bending programs and powerful performances that broadened audience engagement. His New Music series at Artpark, featuring diverse artists like Third Coast Percussion,CS4,Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Jeremy Dutcher, and Ricardo Romaneiro, has consistently performed to sold-out audiences, garnering praise from The Skinny, UK as “…quite simply astonishing.” Equally refined across traditional opera, symphonic, and contemporary repertoire, his performances have been lauded as “passionate,” “nuanced,” and “captivating.”
Secret Symphony of Plants “mesmerizing beauty”
– NPR Morning Edition
Deeply committed to the stage, Brent has prepared and conducted more than twenty operas, including Ariadne auf Naxos, La Traviata, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and L’enfant et les sortilèges. Praised by mezzo-soprano Mignon Dunn as “a real singers’ conductor,” he spent over a decade working with Metropolitan Opera conductors Paul Nadler and Joan Dornemann at the International Vocal Arts Institute, collaborating with distinguished artists such as Nadine Sierra, Natalie Aroyan, Oren Gradus, and Mark Verzatt. In addition to opera, Brent has worked with the Grainger Academy of the Joffrey Ballet, Graham 2, Ailey II, New Jersey Ballet, and members of the San Francisco Ballet under conductor Martin West.
Founding Artistic Director of the LUX Initiative, Brent’s ambitious vision for music education is reshaping the educational concert experience through immersive and artistically rigorous programs for today’s students. Brent’s leadership has paired South Orange Performing Arts Center and artists like Grammy® Award winning violinist Zach Brock (Snarky Puppy) with emerging and under-represented musicians who present district-wide concerts for students in South Orange-Maplewood schools. With a focus on inclusion, diversity and access, collaborations between composers, artists, lighting designers, teachers and electronic musicians guide young listeners through exciting multi-genre orchestra experiences.
Brent holds degrees in composition, piano, and conducting, and is an alumnus of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Blackburn Academy at Festival Napa Valley, and a frequent guest at the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. He has served as an assistant conductor for JoAnn Falletta, Stéphane Denève, Otto Tausk, Nicholas McGegan, Jemma New, Christopher Rountree, and Constantine Kitsopoulos, and worked alongside soloists including, André Watts, Leon Fleisher, Seong-Jin Cho, Angel Blue, and Lester Lynch. His primary teachers include, Paul Nadler, Joel Revzen, Ken Lam, and Andrew Constantine.
2025/2026