Biography

Brittany J. Green (she/her(s)) (b. 1991) is a North Carolina-based composer, performer, and educator. Described as “a creative force of attention-seizing versatility” (The Washington Post) and “cinematic in the best sense” (Chicago Classical Review), brittany’s music works to facilitate collaborative, intimate musical spaces that ignite visceral responses. The intersections between sound, video, movement, and text serves as the focal point of these musical spaces, often questioning and redefining the relationships between these three elements. Recent works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems.

Brittany’s research and creative interests includes contextualizing the work of Julius Eastman through the lens of queer and critical race theory. Her music has been featured at concerts and festivals worldwide including the Boulanger Initiative’s WoCo Fest, the Society of Composers National Conference, New York City Electronic Music Festival, SPLICE Institute, and Experimental Sound Studio. She has presented research at the North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference, East Carolina University’s Research and Creative Arts Week, and the Darkwater Women in Music Festival. Her collaborators include the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Transient Canvas, and the Emory University Symphony Orchestra. She has held residencies with Copland House, TimeSlips, and the Young Composer’s Project.

Highlights of the 2024-2025 season include performances with CSO MusicNow, Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Rebekah Heller, and Mark Stevens alongside premieres by the Louisville Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, the American Pianists Association and Black Echoes//Brick Ripples, an audio-visual interactive installation created in collaboration with media artist Kate Alexandrite.

Brittany’s music has been awarded the Alarm Will Sound Matt Marks Impact Fund (2023), American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Charles Ives Scholarship (2022), ASCAP Foundation’s Morton Gould Award (2021), and New Music USA’s Creator Development Grant (2021). She holds a BM in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and a MM in Music Composition and Theory from East Carolina University. She is currently in residence at Duke University, pursuing a Ph.D in Music Composition as a Deans Graduate Fellow. In her free time, Brittany enjoys reading poetry, watching basketball, video games, and spending time in front of the bonfire. 

Short Bio (150 words)

Brittany J. Green (she/her(s)) is a North Carolina-based composer, creative, and educator. Her music facilitates intimate musical spaces that ignite visceral responses at the intersection of sound, video, movement, and text. Recent works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems. Her artistic practice includes spoken and electronic performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential projects, and acoustic and electroacoustic chamber and large ensemble works. Her music has been featured at TIME:SPANS, NYC Electronic Music Festival, WoCo Fest, and Experimental Sound Studio. Her collaborators include the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Transient Canvas, Castle of our Skins, Emory University Symphony Orchestra, and Wachovia Winds. Brittany holds awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP Foundation, and New Music USA. She is a doctoral candidate at Duke University, pursuing a PhD in music composition as a Dean’s Graduate Fellow.

Media

Press

Articles

23 for ‘23: Composers and Performers to Watch This Year

Diversifying Classical Repertoire for Intermediate Ensembles: Commissioning Brittany J. Green’s “Freedom 2040: The Tomorrow We’ll Build”

American Academy of Arts and Letters 2022 Music Award Winners

Brittany J. Green’s "Against/Sharp" honors Black lives and voices

Artists as Researchers: Brittany J. Green Is Disrupting Classical Composition

The ASCAP Foundation Names Recipients of 2021 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards

Women composers to revel this weekend at WoCo Fest 2021

“The Durham, N.C.-based composer and educator is a creative force of attention-seizing versatility. She can light up expansive orchestral landscapes (like the churning primordial soup of “In the Beginning”) or dig deep with vivacious chamber works such as “Against/Sharp,” a bracing exploration of Black identity inspired by Zora Neale Hurston…Green, 32, has also recently delved into multimedia projects, including the short film “Thresh and Hold,” a collaboration with poet Marlanda Dekine and filmmaker Mahkia Greene that Green salts with grainy textures and dots with pulsing electronics.” – Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post

“Her writing is cinematic in the best sense: gestural, minimal yet detailed, but packing an emotional wallop” – Hannah Edgar, Chicago Classical Review

“Under Marianne Parker’s sympathetic fingers, the standout movement, “L’homme durci,” [from Portraits for piano] is a searing, minute-long maelstrom.” – Hannah Edgar, Chicago Classical Review

“Brittany J. Green’s …to experience life offers a solid contrast in expression of gratitude.” – Les Roka, The Utah Review

“What I find so compelling about Brittany’s work is the freedom with which she has been developing her musical language: she amalgamates and synthesizes the thorniest branches of musical modernism, vernacular music of all sorts, algorithmic computer processes, electronic music, improvisation, and field recordings. Moreover, this synthesis involves bracing conceptual armatures that support her pieces and deepen their meaning. The striking, personal music that has emerged in pieces such as “Against/Sharp” and “r_upTure” reveals the rarest of musical minds: one capable of appealing to the intellect while never forgetting that music is made for the ear, for the mind, and for the heart.” – John Supko, Duke Arts

“On a stage full of talent, Ms. Green proved to be the bright particular shinning star. Her engaging manner and casual delivery were delightful, and the program…an excellent display of her talents as a composer.” – George B. Parous, OnStage Pittsburgh

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