Antarctica was written as part of the show Elemental and premiered on April 22, 2018 with Mezzo-Soprano Cheryse McLeod Lewis and pianist/composer Steven Luksan during a performance by Seattle Art Song Society.
The text is by celebrated Australian poet Caroline Caddy and is a part of her collection of poetry entitled Antarctica.
To read the poem and explore other poems from the collection, click here.
To listen to a sample of a studio recording of this song from the album Inaugural produced by Seattle Art Song Society, click here.
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
Avarice was written as part of the show Elemental and premiered on April 22, 2018 with Baritone Darrell J. Jordan and pianist/composer Steven Luksan during a performance by Seattle Art Song Society.
The text is by poet George Herbert, and even though it was written in the 1600’s it rings just as true (if not truer) today…
“Money, thou bane of blisse, & sourse of wo…
—
Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich;
And while he digs out thee, falls in the ditch.”
To read the full sonnet, click here.
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
Define Me was written in 2018 as part of the show “Queer Voices”. The world premiere was on October 12, 2018 with tenor John Marzano and pianist Jay Rozendaal.
To read more about what inspired me to write this cycle, click here
To listen to a sample of selections from the world premiere, click here
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
COMING SOON!
Flames was written as part of the show Elemental and premiered on April 22, 2018 with Contralto Rachelle Moss and pianist/composer Steven Luksan (on piano instead of flute) during a performance by Seattle Art Song Society.
The text is by TOGE Sankichi, a Japanese poet, activist, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. A huge thanks to Professor Karen Thornber and to The University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) for allowing me to use the English translation of this important work.
The full translation of TŌGE Sankichi's work Poems of the Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Shishu) by Karen Thornber (Harvard University) was a winner of the 2011-2012 William F. Sibley Memorial Translation Prize, and is available on the CEAS website.
To listen to a sample of a studio recording of this song from the album Inaugural produced by Seattle Art Song Society, click here. This recording is from the studio recording and features Rachelle with flutist Heather Bede.
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
This song was premiered on April 22, 2018 as part of the Earth Day performance of my show Elemental. Dora Barnes, soprano and pianist/composer Steven Luksan.
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
Elemental certainly kept me busy composing! This piece O, Gluttony! was also premiered on April 22, 2018 by Dora Barnes, sorpano and Steven Luksan, pianist/composer.
This piece was a lot of fun to write! The text is extracted from Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales and the music is based on an aria from Handel’s Alexander’s Feast. There are a lot of music-nerd layers of fun times here and I really enjoyed writing this one.
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
This song was written in the summer of 2018. I composed this canon, which can be sung as a solo or with as many as 5 voices, as the unifying musical device through the entire 18-19 season of concerts for Seattle Art Song Society which was also called “One Voice”.
You can listen to a live recording (on my personal mic, so don’t mind the quality) of everyone at the “Voices of Mental Health” recital singing this song in unison by clicking here.
If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.
