Allen Brings

A native of New York City, Allen Brings received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Queens College  and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University, where he was a Mosenthal Fellow and a student of Otto Luening, and  a doctorate in theory and composition from Boston University, where he was a teaching fellow and a student of Gardner Read. In 1962 he was a Naumburg Fellow at Princeton University, where he studied with Roger Sessions. He has twice served as chairman of the eastern region of the American Society of University Composers and is currently vice-president of Connecticut Composers. His published compositions, which include works for orchestra, band, chorus, a wide variety of chamber ensembles, piano, organ, harpsichord, guitar, and voice, have been recorded for Navona Records, Capstone, Centaur, Grenadilla, Contemporary Record Society, North/South Consonance, Arizona University Recordings, and Vienna Modern Masters. A pianist as well as a composer, Brings has performed extensively both here and abroad especially in programs of music for piano, four-hands, with Genevieve Chinn, with whom he has recorded for Orion, CRI, and Centaur. He is also co-author of A New Approach to Keyboard Harmony, published by W. W. Norton, and has contributed articles to College Music Symposium, College Music Society Newsletter, Contemporary Music Newsletter, Society of Composers Newsletter, New Music Connoisseur, New Oxford Review, ComposerUSA, sounding board, and Adoremus Bulletin. He is Professor Emeritus of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York, where he was co-ordinator of the theory and ear training program, and is a director of the Weston Music Center and School of the Performing Arts in Weston, Connecticut, where he teaches piano and theory.