Cory Brodack

“As a young musician before I found my passion in composing, I rarely played the music of composers that were alive, and if I did, they were more of an abstract concept than an actual person. I know several composers that like being on that pedestal of the all-knowing creator, but in reality, most of us are just experimenting and learning from our mistakes. I would have gained a lot of experience working with a living, flesh and blood composer as a young performer. I hope that in participating in the Youth Orchestra Commissioning Initiative, I can help dissolve the compartmentalized way we view music and music education, and both teach and learn from these inspiring youth orchestras.”

Biography

Cory Brodack (b.1997) is a composer from the St. Louis area. He composes for both electronic and acoustic mediums, with an emphasis on timbre and the uncontrollable phenomena that arise in both human performance and electronic systems. His music is inspired by individual aspects of the human condition and the unique connection between performer, score, and audience. He has worked for the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis (The Muny) on projects such as the first staging of Jerome Robbins's Broadway since 1989, and a new orchestration of The Wiz during the Muny's historic centennial season.

Brodack’s recent awards include the 2020 Rudolf Nissim Prize, an honorable mention in the American Prize, and ECU's New Music Initiative Orchestra Composition Competition. His music has been played by performers such as the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis, Andrew Pelletier, David Bohn, and Daniel Anastasio. Recently, his work Ombré was performed at the inaugural online zFestival. He is currently pursuing his masters studies in composition at Bowling Green State University with Christopher Dietz and Mikel Kuehn. Prior to Bowling Green, he earned his bachelor's degree in music composition from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where he studied composition with Kimberly Archer.