Zack Browning

Bio

The music of Zack Browning is described as “way-cool in attitude” and “speed-demon music” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and “propulsive, giddy, rocking…, a rush of cyclic riffs and fractured meters” (The New York Times). The Irish Times has proclaimed he is “bringing together the procedures of high musical art with the taste of popular culture”. The CD Banjaxed on Capstone Records contains eight of his original compositions for voice, instruments and computer-generated sounds and has been called “dramatic, exciting, rhythmic, high-energy music”.

Browning’s composition awards have included two Illinois Arts Council Composer Fellowships, a Chamber Music America Commission, and two Arnold O. Beckman Awards and two FAA Fellowships from the University of Illinois. Performances include Bang On A Can (New York),  Bonk Festival of New Music (Tampa), the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival (Miami), International Computer Music Conference (New Orleans), Spark Festival (Minneapolis), Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), Composers Choice Festival (Dublin), Sonorities Festival (Belfast) , Skinneskatteberg Festival (Sweden), Asian Contemporary Music Festival (Seoul), and National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center (Taipei). Recent lecture performances include Trinity College Dublin, and University College Cork in Ireland; Jilin University, Northeast Normal University, and Nanjing Normal University in China; Seoul National University in South Korea; and National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei National University of the Arts, Fu-Jen Catholic University, and Tunghai University in Taiwan. Browning’s most recent solo CDs Venus Notorious (2010) and Secret Pulse(2012) are available on Innova Recordings.

Active as a composer, conductor, and performer, Browning has played trumpet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and served as co-director of the Atlanta New Music Ensemble. Browning received his Bachelors Degree in music composition from Florida State University where he studied with Krzysztof Penderecki, and John Boda and his Masters and Doctorate in music composition from the University of Illinois where his composition teachers were Benjamin Johnston, Salvatore Martirano and Paul Zonn. Browning is the director of the Martirano Award which is an international composition competition sponsored by the University of Illinois. More information is available at www.zackbrowning.com