Biography

 Montreal-based Canadian composer Stacey Brown has been called “a composer to watch” (Broad Street Review) whose “considerable promise is apparent” (Philadelphia Inquirer). Her varied and versatile musical output – described as organic and deftly interwoven (Le Devoir), and “showing a gift for skillful orchestration” (Bachtrack) – includes opera and concert works, from solo to orchestra, as well as music for projects involving theatre, dance, and film.

    Winner of Symphony Nova Scotia’s Maria Anna Mozart Award (2019), the National Composition Prize of the Canadian University Music Society (2010), and the 1st and 3rd prizes of the Prix collégien de musique contemporaine (2016, 2018), Brown has had her works performed across Canada and in the United States by ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra (Yannick Nézet-Séguin), the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra (Dina Gilbert), l’Orchestre Métropolitain (Yannick Nézet-Séguin), l’Orchestre de la Francophonie (Jean-Philippe Tremblay), Bicycle Opera Project, VivaVoce (Peter Schubert), Fiolûtröniq, Ensemble Kô (Tiphaine Legrand), Pianos Galore (Clyde Mitchell), and Erreur de type 27 (Katia Makdissi-Warren), as well as by performers including Daniel Cabena, Claudine Ledoux, Philippe Prud'homme, and Katelyn Clark. 

    Recent commissions include an orchestral song cycle for countertenor, L’horreur de constater qu’on nous oubliera (five poems by Bertrand Laverdure), which was premiered in 2015 by the Orchestre de la Francophonie and Daniel Cabena under the direction of Jean-Philippe Tremblay, the theatrical concert work (un)done, premiered in 2016 by Ensemble Paramirabo with featured vocalists Sarah Albu and Vincent Ranallo, and the visual-art inspired Perspectives premiered in 2017 by the Orchestre Métropolitain under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

    Brown’s premieres in 2019 include the trumpet concerto En soi, in and of itself (2019) with trumpeter Stéphane Beaulac and the Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Nicolas Ellis; Lachrimae Viventium and Lorasirme Ryny Their Galliard for viol consort (2019) with Les Voix humaines; and Urgent Solitudes for voice, cello, and piano with mezzo-soprano Stéphanie Pothier, cellist Amanda Keesmaat, and pianist Rosalie Asselin. 

    An adjunct professor of music and experienced French-English translator, Brown has also authored several music analysis articles published by L’Éducation musicale (France). Stacey Brown is a Professional Member of the Canadian League of Composers and an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and holds composition degrees from the University of Victoria (BMUS) and the Université de Montréal (MMUS; DMUS).