Courtney Bryan
composer
Courtney Bryan, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and currently serves as composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia.
Recent highlights include the world premiere of Dreaming (Freedom Sounds) for the Jacksonville Symphony, the piano concerto House of Pianos, and Gathering Song, with libretto by Tazewell Thompson, which debuted with the New York Philharmonic. Other new works are Blessed, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and produced as a film that weaves together musical recordings and footage from New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia; Syzygy for violin and orchestra, premiered by Jennifer Koh and the Chicago Sinfonietta; and Yet Unheard for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, commissioned by The Dream Unfinished and premiered with Helga Davis.
Bryan’s compositions have been performed by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (Creative Partner, 2020-2023), Jacksonville Symphony (Mary Carr Patton Composer-In-Residence, 2018–2020), London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Chicago Sinfonietta, Quince Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, New York Jazzharmonic, Spektral String Quartet, and Talea Ensemble. Her work has been presented at numerous venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art.
Bryan has collaborated with visual artists Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Steffani Jemison, Abigail DeVille, Kara Lynch, Lake Simons, Amy Bryan, and Alma Bryan Powell; director Patricia McGregor; writers Sharan Strange, Matthew D. Morrison, and Ashon Crawley; and musicians Branford Marsalis, Jennifer Koh, Ryan Speedo Green, Helga Davis, Brandee Younger, and Damian Norfleet.
She holds a doctorate in composition from Columbia University, where she studied with George Lewis, a B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory, and an M.M. from Rutgers University. Currently, she is the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University. Her accolades include the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2018), Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition (2019–2020), United States Artists Fellowship (2020), and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (2020–2021).
Bryan has released two recordings, Quest for Freedom (2007) and This Little Light of Mine (2010), with a third recording, Sounds of Freedom, in progress.