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In recent years Paul Brantley’s compositions have been performed or commissioned by Horszowski Trio, Flux Quartet, New Esterházy Quartet, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Bargemusic, U.C. Berkeley Chamber Chorus, Monadnock Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, St. Bartholomew’s Summer Festival of Sacred Music, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (NYC’s Town Hall), Left Bank Ensemble (Kennedy Center), Ethel (Kimmel Center), Excelsior Trombone Ensemble (NPR’s Performance Today), The Goliard Ensemble on tour, The Manhattan School of Music Symphony, Belladonna (Schubert Club, St. Paul, MN), L’Opera du Village (Pourrieres, France), SONYC (the Kitchen), and as featured composer on the North River, MOSA and Concerts in the Heights series. He recently completed a commission from Maestro Kenneth Kiesler and The University of Michigan Symphony to compose The Royal Revolver, a cello concertino, for Eric Jacobsen (The Knights, Silk Road Project).
In April 2012 Brantley was invited to give a composition seminar at the Yale School of Music. He is a five-time MacDowell Colony Fellow who has also received fellowships from Banff Centre and Anderson Center. Brantley has been composer-in-residence for Monadnock Music Festival, Gabriel Fauré Conservatoire (Angoulême, France), Goliard Ensemble, Yara Arts Group, The Seal Bay Festival, Children’s Choral Celebration, Sewanee Music Festival, Washington and Lee University, and the Sophia Institute at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.
Brantley has received solo or chamber instrumental performances by such artists as cellist Peter Stumpf; flutists Laura Gilbert, Nathalie Joachim, Marya Martin, Alex Sopp; pianists Rieko Aizawa, Steve Beck, Jeremy Denk, Pedja Muzijevic, Jeewon Park, and Catherine Schneider; violinists Cornelius Dufallo and Jesse Mills; and ensembles Cassatt Quartet, Flux Quartet, Ethel, Horszowski Trio, Music of the Spheres, and New Esterházy Quartet.
His vocal music has been sung by Tony Arnold, Janna Baty, Jeanine de Bique, Amy Blake, Karen Burlingame, Rachel Calloway, Abigail Fischer, Alexander Hurd, Sharla Nafziger, and Daisy Press.
His orchestral music has been performed by the Augusta Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Curtis Institute Symphony Orchestra, Eastman School of Music String Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, Manhattan School of Music Symphony, The Memphis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Reno Philharmonic, Sewanee Festival Orchestra, SONYC, and the University of Michigan Symphony.
Multifaceted musician, Brantley has performed as solo cellist with Trey Anastasio (Phish), Cassatt Quartet, Jeff Coffin Mutet, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Dave Gregory (XTC), and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Brantley has arranged and conducted for David Binney, Ethel, Todd Rundgren, and Christian Scott.
Paul studied at Manhattan School of Music (B.M), Curtis Institute (diploma), Eastman School of Music (M.M.) as well as Fontainebleau, Tanglewood, and The Yellow Barn where he was later artist faculty. His principal teachers include Samuel Adler, Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Eicher, Alan Harris, David Loeb, and David Wells.
He co-founded the Seal Bay Festival of American Music and was artist faculty at Yellow Barn Music Festival for many years. In addition to positions at Syracuse University and Washington and Lee University, Brantley was a Manhattan School of Music faculty member from 2000 to 2014.
Paul Brantley currently resides in New York City where he free-lances as a composer, cellist, and conductor. His music is published by Bill Holab Music and Oxford University Press. He has recorded solo cello for Sony/Columbia, Rounder, Warner Bros., Polydor, Compass, and others.
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