Brian Harman, born in Montréal in 1981, is a Toronto-based composer, pianist, teacher and arts promoter. His music has been described as “effective and chilling” (Richard Todd, Ottawa Citizen), “three-dimensional, maybe four-dimensional” (Arthur Kaptainis, The [Montreal] Gazette), with “good use of textural contrasts [and] skillful combinations of instruments” (Robert Everett Green, The Globe and Mail). Harman’s works explore the relationship between music and our physical or imaginary experience of the world, using layers of carefully carved musical textures and gestures that contrast in temporal character. His compositions are frequently inspired by extra-musical elements, such as architecture, dance and technology, and he has written for a wide variety of media: orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, chamber ensembles, piano, live and pre-recorded electronics, film, theatre, and modern dance.

Harman’s music has been performed across Canada, in the US, England and Japan. In 2009, Dialectics, for wind ensemble, was selected as a finalist in the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra’s Composition Competition, and was performed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. In 2008, he took part in a six-city Canadian tour with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+ as part of its Génération 2008 program. The commissioned work, Gregarious Machines, was broadcast on CBC Radio 2. In 2004, The Prince was a finalist in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s New Creations competition. His other awards include a SOCAN Foundation Award in 2007 and a Composition Award from the Canadian Universities Music Society in 2006. Harman participated in Rencontres de Nouvelle Musique at Domaine Forget in 2007, the National Arts Centre Composers Programme in 2006, and the Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop’s String Quartet session in 2006. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the SOCAN Foundation, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and the Fonds de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture.

Harman is currently composer-in-residence with the Tangent Ensemble for their inaugural 2010-2011 season, with several works being performed over the next year in Montréal. His works have been performed by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, VivaVoce Montreal, ECM+, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, l’Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne, Pazzia Contemporary Performing Collective, Ensemble Euterpe, Scott St. John and Lydia Wong. Current projects include commissions from Montréal-based Trio ’86 and the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, and a new work for the McGill Symphony Orchestra. He will also collaborate for the second time in 2011 with the innovative Montréal-based modern dance group Evolucidanse and choreographer Geneviève Bolla on a project for solo piano and solo dancer.