Biography
American pianist Dana Brown is highly regarded for both his solo and collaborative performances. As a pianist, he has been heard many times on 98.7 WFMT Radio as a collaborator and soloist, in addition to performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Light Opera Works, the Chicago Cultural Center and the Chicago Humanities Festival. His concerto appearances have been in the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Gershwin, Grieg and Mendelssohn, including a performance of the “Emperor” Concerto with the Beethoven Society Pops Orchestra of Washington, DC. In November 2018, he appeared as soloist with Orchestra Seattle in the Ravel Left Hand Concerto.
A nationally prominent vocal coach, he has coached at the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he also played lessons and masterclasses of Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Renée Fleming and Sir Andrew Davis. He has also coached at Northwestern University, the Intermezzo Young Artists Program, the Opera and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, and the Taos Opera Institute. He was the coach for the 2008-2011 seasons of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Wisconsin District Support Our Singers Program.
He supports young singers through his work at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where is former Chair of the Music Faculty and Associate Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching. He has musically directed over fifty operas at Roosevelt University, most recently King Arthur/Henry Purcell, Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters/Ned Rorem, and Riders to the Sea/Ralph Vaughan Williams. For seven summers, he was the Co-Artistic Director of a mind-body-voice program for emerging young talent, the UpNorth Vocal Institute (UNVI) in Boyne, Michigan. He was also the Head of Collaborative Piano in the new Vocal Art Program at the Master Players Festival held at the University of Delaware in summer, 2018.
He is the Collaborative Piano liaison to the Central Regional Board of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and played the Renée Fleming masterclass at the recent national NATS Convention held in Chicago. He is also a member of the Collaborative Piano Committee of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he studied with renowned pianist Martin Katz. He currently studies with Mary Sauer, the former principal pianist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Abbreviated Biography
American pianist Dana Brown is an Associate Professor of Opera and Vocal Coaching at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. As a pianist, he has been heard many times on 98.7 WFMT Radio, in addition to performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center and the Chicago Humanities Festival He is a staff pianist for the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he has played the lessons and masterclasses of Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Renée Fleming and Sir Andrew Davis. He is the Collaborative Pianist Liaison to the Central Regional Board of NATS, the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Mr. Brown is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of Chicago’s Fourth Coast Ensemble, a professional vocal quartet. With Fourth Coast, he will be the pianist in the world premiere of Andrea Clearfield’s peace cantata, A Brush With Our Time, in fall of 2021. Also, his upcoming solo recital in Los Angeles features transcriptions of American pianist Earl Wild in music of Gershwin and Rachmaninoff.