Events

Michael Stephen Brown, piano

Beethoven, Sonata in F-sharp major, Op. 78; Schubert, Sonata in A major, D. 959;
Maurice Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Samuel Adler, A Struggle Between Darkness and Light;
Michael Stephen Brown, Four Lakes for Children

A 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2024 Yaddo Artist, composer-pianist Michael Stephen Brown performs recitals and concertos worldwide and is commissioned by leading orchestras, soloists, and chamber music festivals. Winner of the 2026 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, an Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has appeared as soloist with the Seattle, Phoenix, North Carolina, Albany, and Maryland Symphonies, as well as the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra. His recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Louvre, Wigmore Hall, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

Brown is currently composing The Carnival of Endangered Wonders: A Zoological Fantasy, a large-scale chamber work co-commissioned by CMS Palm Beach, La Musica (Sarasota), Friends of Music (Kansas City), and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to premiere in 2026. A frequent artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he also tours internationally in a duo with longtime musical partner Nicholas Canellakis and collaborates regularly with Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth, and violinists Arnaud Sussmann and Kristin Lee. A dedicated educator, he gives lectures and masterclasses around the world.

Brown’s compositions have been commissioned by leading organizations and artists, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Bridgehampton and Gilmore festivals, the Maryland Symphony, Osmo Vänskä and Erin Keefe, the SPA Trio, and pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, Orion Weiss, Adam Golka, and Roman Rabinovich, soprano Susanna Phillips, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis. Recently, he served as Composer and Artist-in-Residence at the New Haven Symphony and is a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award. His symphonic work, American Diaries, draws on words by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and excerpts from his grandfather’s World War II diary.

Selected by András Schiff to perform on an international recital tour, Brown made debuts at Zurich’s Tonhalle and New York’s 92nd Street Y. He regularly appears at major festivals including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Saratoga, Caramoor, Bard, Sedona, Moab, and Tippet Rise. A prolific recording artist, Twelve Blocks, an album of his works featuring his Piano Concerto with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and Mendelssohn+ with premieres by Delphine von Schauroth are both slated for upcoming releases on First Hand Records.

A First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a recipient of the Bowers Residency from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brown earned dual degrees in piano and composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald, and composer Samuel Adler. Additional mentors have included George Perle, András Schiff, and Richard Goode. Brown is also an Artist Ambassador for Creatives Care, an organization helping artists access affordable mental healthcare.

Brown is the composer for Angeline Gragasin’s upcoming film Look But Don’t Touch and lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria. Known for his engaging commentary on music and his colorful sock changes during intermission, audiences eagerly anticipate both his insights and his unique sense of style.