Self-taught composer and pianist Brian Gillett was born in 1972 in Marietta, GA. His facility with extemporization colored his development as a composer, and an improvisatory character underlies many of his compositions.

In 1995 he enrolled in McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, QC. Four years later, he settled in New York as both a composer and medical doctor. Dr. Gillett presently resides in Brooklyn, where he composes and works as an Emergency Medicine physician. As a secular Jewish composer, his neo-romantic minimalism often resonates with Judaic tonality.

Gillett’s integration of Art and Science – two ostensibly disparate worlds – into one balanced texture is also paralleled in his compositional style. Rooted in extemporization, and often comprised of dissimilar sounds, his rich sonic textures fuse elements of romanticism and the avant-garde.

Albums

Sculpting the Air

Release Date: June 1, 2011
Catalog Number: NV5852
20th Century
Chamber
Large Ensemble
Wind Ensemble
SCULPTING THE AIR is a collection of modern works featuring brass and flute instrumentations from composers Samuel Barber, James Adler, Russ Lombardi, Jan Van der Roost, Barry Seroff, Brian Gillett, Juan Sebastian Lach Lau and Richard Crosby. The works on this disc range from a rhapsodic wind quintet originally composed for winds, strings and piano to a musical representation of a familial argument to a spectral piece based on one of Satie's Gymnopédies.