Published by Brian Wilbur Grundstrom
A composer equally accustomed to writing for orchestra, opera, film, theater, cho-rus, piano and chamber ensembles, Brian Wilbur Grundstrom’s voice includes a strong affinity for long melodic lines, distinctive tonal harmonic vocabulary, engaging rhythms, skillfully executed counterpoint, and dramatic imagery.
Audiences take to his compositions immediately, finding in his compositions traces of Puccini and film music. Classically trained in piano as well as music theory from Gettysburg College, he continued orchestration and composition studies with John David Earnest.
Grundstrom won Outstanding Emerging Artist in the 2013 DC Mayor’s Arts Awards, and has received seven fellowships from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His awards also include Encore from American Composers Forum, Composers Assistance Program from the American Music Center and ASCAPLUS from ASCAP. He has received four Peer Awards from Television, Internet & Video Association of DC (TIVA-DC) including a Gold Peer Award for Children of Zeus – a 46-minute work for chorus and orchestra commissioned by Maestro Jeffrey Dokken and the Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia, CoroAllegro and St Marie’s Cho-ral Arts.
A member of ASCAP, Grundstrom attended the ASCAP/NYU Buddy Baker Film Music Workshop. His features include Arc of Light: A Portrait of Anna Campbell Bliss and 2 Minutes Later, in addition to writing music for many short films. His studio includes the latest in technologies, including Vienna Symphonic Library, and he is able to render his orchestral compositions at high professional standards. His music has been performed by La Orquesta Sinfonica De Loja and La Orquestra Sinfónica de Guayaquil (Ecuador), Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (Brasilia, Brazil), Sunderman Woodwind Quintet, SONOS Chamber Orches-tra, North/South Consonance, Shippensburg Festival Orchestra, Trinity Chamber Orchestra, George Washington University Orchestra, NIH Philharmonia, Holyoke Civic Symphony, The Queer Urban Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia, Chamber Music by Candelight by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musi-cians, Oconomowoc Chamber Orchestra, CoroAllegro, Colla Voce and The New Jersey Gay Men’s Chorus, as well as on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
Grundstrom’s CD, An Orchestral Journey was released in 2016 by Parma Record-ings under the Navona Records label with distribution by Naxos. The CD features his orchestral music conducted by Erik Ochsner at the Omega Recording Studios. Brian is currently working on an opera based on Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls.
SONOS Chamber Orchestra Director Erik E. Ochsner writes “Many audiences cringe at the thought of new music. We had such positive feedback from audiences on how much they enjoyed Grundstrom's work. It is modern, yet tonal.”
Maestro Jeffrey Dokken writes about American Reflections for Strings and Harp: "The polyphony of the work is nothing short of genius. Truly. The relationship be-tween the parts is so well written. Having your work on the program was wonderful. It truly embodies the best of American contemporary classical music. It is rhythmi-cally enticing, harmonically satisfying and interesting, makes full use of what a string section can do, shows a broad spectrum of colors without forcing anything, provides several 'eye closingly beautiful moments', and keeps the audience engaged from beat one."
Edward Tyndall, Writer/Director of Sadie's Waltz (Mobius Films) writes:
"It was a joy to work with Brian on my last two projects. His dedication to the collabo-rative nature of filmmaking and the creative process greatly increased the dramatic complexity of my films. Brian has an amazing talent for composing cinematic scores. I look forward to working with him on our next film."
He is represented by Jeffrey James Arts Consulting, and his compositions can be heard at www.brianwilbur.com.
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