Brian Current

Brian Current studied music at McGill University and UC Berkeley (PhD). His music, lauded and broadcast in over 35 countries, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize for Orchestral Music (USA), the Premio Fedora (Italy) for Chamber Opera, and a Selected Work (under 30) at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.  

Brian’s pieces have been programmed by all major symphony orchestras in Canada and by dozens of professional orchestras, ensembles and opera companies worldwide. His music appears on ten commercial recordings, including three albums devoted exclusively to his works. The Naxos recording of his opera Airline Icarus earned him a 2015 Juno Award for Best Classical Composition of the Year. 

Brian is also an in-demand conductor and regularly leads orchestral programs of contemporary music. He has championed over 100 works by Canadian composers. 

Brian has been the main conductor of the Continuum Ensemble since 2011 and has guest conducted with symphony orchestras and ensembles in Canada, the USA and Italy. Starting in the 2021/22 season, he will serve as Artistic Director and Conductor of New Music Concerts of Toronto. Since 2007 Brian has been director of the New Music Ensemble of the Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory. In 2016 he won the inaugural Azrieli Commissioning Competition, one of the largest awards in the world at $50,000; and in 2018 his Shout, Sisyphus, Flock won the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music.