AIC Member - John Wolf Brennan

John Wolf Brennan was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1954. Internationally known as a composer, performer, improvisor, pianist and organist, Brennan has performed his music throughout Europe, Russia, Canada, China, the Ukraine, the USA and Japan. He has has earned worldwide recognition and has a Markant fellowship, a Landis & Gyr London fellowship, a SBG culture award and many grants and commissions to his credit.

His recent works include State of Flux for the Trio Animae, Immram for the Diversus Guitar Ensemble, SIL/ST/RINGS for Yang Jing (pipa) and the Concert Guitar Trio, the opera Night.Shift (based on W.H.Auden‘s The Age of Anxiety, premiered 2007 in St.Gallen, with Noëmie Nadelmann, Yaniv d'Or a.o.), the opera Güdelmäntig (Text: Thomas Hürlimann), Equilibrio precario for soprano and tape (CRM Rome), solo piano works Pictures in a Gallery, Flügel and The Well-Prepared Clavier, new music for the Glockenspiel at the Swiss Centre London, klanggang for the Museum of Art Lucerne, Epithalamium (after James Joyce) for the ensemble Noamnesia in Chicago, A Golly Gal‘s way to Galway Bay for flute orchestra (dedicated to James Galway), Euratorium for choir, orchestra and alphorn solo, Nearly Charming for the Moscow Ensemble for Contemporary Music, and platzDADA!, a dada soirée based on poems by Hans Arp, Kurs Schwitters and Daniil Charms, and a yodel book together with singer Nadja Räss. Currently he is working on Wurzelklänge (music for children based on Celtic songlines), State of Flux (for the Animae Trio), and Abel, steh auf!, a cantata fort he Konzertchor Harmonie in Zurich and Dundrum, a piece for Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

Brennan is a member of several international groups including Momentum, with Gene Coleman, (bass clarinet) Thomas K.J.Mejer (sopranino & contrabass saxophone), Sculpted Sound with Magda Vogel (voice), Co Streiff (saxophones) and Margrit Rieben (perc); Pago Libre, with Arkady Shilkloper (horn, alphorn), Tscho Theissing (violin) and Georg Breinschmid (bass); pipelines, with Hans Kennel (alphorn, trumpet) and Marc Unternährer (tuba); Triangulation with Christy Doran (guitars) and Patrice Héral (perc), Broken Dreams with Alexandra Prusa (voice) and Peter Gossweiler (bass), Zero Heroes with Peggy Lee (violoncello) and Dylan van der Schyff (perc), HeXtet, a sextet featuring Julie Tippetts (voice), Evan Parker (saxophones), Paul Rutherford (trombone), Peter Whyman (bass clarinet) and Chris Cutler (drums).

In 1993, he co-founded the Swiss composer group Groupe Lacroix, which produced several recordings, among them 8 Pieces on Paul Klee. For his "innovative work as composer" he was awarded the Prix de la Fondation SUISA in 2002 and the prestigious UBS culture award in 2008.

Together with his wife, pianist Béatrice Wolf, and their three girls Móreen, Enya and Jayne, he lives in Weggis, Lake Lucerne.

Sound Bites

Listen

String Theory: From the award-winning solo piano album "Fluegel" (which means both "wing" and "grand piano" in German)

Listen

Two Rabbits: From the award-winning solo piano album "Fluegel" (which means both "wing" and "grand piano" in German)

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