Brian Current

Brian Current (born May 4, 1972) is a Canadian composer and conductor.

Born in London, Ontario, Current grew up in Ottawa where he studied piano, guitar and euphonium, and was a chorister. Following studies at McGill University under composers John Rea and Bengt Hambraeus, he earned a doctorate in composition at the University of California, Berkeley where he also studied conducting with David Milnes and Michael Morgan.

He is an advocate of contemporary classical music, including for young audiences.

Current composes mainly in larger instrumental forms and opera.

His work has been widely recognized with commissions and awards including:

Dora Award, 2022, for the opera, Gould's Wall Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, 2018, for Shout, Sisyphus, Flock Commission for the chamber opera, Missing, 2017 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year, 2015, for the Naxos recording of the chamber opera, Airline Icarus. First prize, Azrieli Commissioning Competition, 2015, for The Seven Heavenly Halls Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award, 2012 Premio Fedora, 2011, for the chamber opera, Airline Icarus Barlow Prize, 2003, for Symphonies in Slanted Time Outstanding work by a composer under 30, International Rostrum of Composers, 2001, for This Isn't Silence Grand Prize, 2001, CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers, for For the Time Being Current has had residencies in the US, Italy and Japan and was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.