THE MUSIC OF
KAREN BROWN

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Karen Brown is a composer, euphoniumist, interdisciplinary music theory researcher and programmer. She has recently completed her doctoral studies in music theory and composition at the University of Pittsburgh. Her musical language aims to use novel notational approaches, including the integration of newly designed softwares into traditional notational practice in order to present new opportunities and mental spaces for the performer to explore while simultaneously reducing notational complexity. In particular, her work focuses on elucidating the experiences and perspectives of women, transgender individuals, and people with disabilities. Her compositional work has recently focused on a diverse array of interprofessional collaborations including: her chamber opera Virgula Divina, Erdalied and Locusta (operas produced in collaboration with poet and librettist Jessica Lanay), her composer residency with the University of Pittsburgh department of Physics, her research position with SCI-Informatics and Networked Systems at the University of Pittsburgh, Lunokhod a piece for solo euphonium and dancer developed collaboration with Anna Bonnaci, as well as the development of auditory display software in collaboration with D. Angus Clark, a post-doctoral fellow in the psychiatry department at the University of Michigan. Karen’s dissertation work as a music theory researcher draws heavily on the digital humanities and focuses on Elliott Carter, aiming to study the manner by which listeners contextualize narrative within Carter’s music.