ABOUT
Griffin Brown is a
︎
composer
poet
songwriter+vocalist
drummer
producer
poet
songwriter+vocalist
drummer
producer
and photographer based in Brooklyn. Described by The Wire as “impressive” and “original,” his musical work collides—and sometimes exists wholly inside of—idioms like concert music, jazz, electronic, experimental pop+rock, and improvised music. His poems appear in The Paris Review, Plume, Poetry Northwest, Prelude, and elsewhere.
He has performed and had music debuted in an array of concert halls, clubs, and basements—among many others, the Cornelia Street Café, Miller Theatre, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Racket, Elsewhere, Birdland, Caramoor, PS21 Chatham, Mercury Lounge, The Owl, Sundown, TV Eye, and SOB’s in New York; MASS MoCA (Bang on a Can) and The Sinclair in Massachusetts; Lincoln Hall in Chicago; Beinecke Library, Morse Recital Hall, and Space Ballroom in New Haven; Underground Arts, World Café Live, and the Trocadero in Philadelphia; The Blue Room/Third Man Records in Nashville; The Atlantis in D.C.; The Baked Potato in Los Angeles; Donau115 in Berlin; Celeste and Fabrik in Vienna; Punctum in Prague; La Schola Cantorum in Paris; and the highSCORE Festival in Pavia—and taken part in impuls in Graz. Griffin has been commissioned by institutions (such as the Yale Center for British Art) and new music groups (such as Metropolis Ensemble and Opera Elect) alike; premieres and first realizations include performances by the S.E.M. Ensemble, Jeff Stern and Matt Keown of the icarus Quartet, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and numerous versions of his own ensembles. Additionally, he is active on drums, percussion, vocals, and keyboards throughout New York in groups variously established, emerging, and ad hoc.
In the recording domain, Griffin regularly works as a performer, producer, and engineer in a wide range of styles at studios such as Figure 8 Recording, Gary’s Electric, Better Company Studios, Good Child Music, Strange Weather, Short Stack, and Voyager Sound Studios, among others.
Griffin received a B.A. from Yale in 2018, where he studied Music and English and was awarded the Clapp Fellowship in poetry. That same year he was named a winner of the Connecticut Circuit Poetry Contest.
He has performed and had music debuted in an array of concert halls, clubs, and basements—among many others, the Cornelia Street Café, Miller Theatre, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Racket, Elsewhere, Birdland, Caramoor, PS21 Chatham, Mercury Lounge, The Owl, Sundown, TV Eye, and SOB’s in New York; MASS MoCA (Bang on a Can) and The Sinclair in Massachusetts; Lincoln Hall in Chicago; Beinecke Library, Morse Recital Hall, and Space Ballroom in New Haven; Underground Arts, World Café Live, and the Trocadero in Philadelphia; The Blue Room/Third Man Records in Nashville; The Atlantis in D.C.; The Baked Potato in Los Angeles; Donau115 in Berlin; Celeste and Fabrik in Vienna; Punctum in Prague; La Schola Cantorum in Paris; and the highSCORE Festival in Pavia—and taken part in impuls in Graz. Griffin has been commissioned by institutions (such as the Yale Center for British Art) and new music groups (such as Metropolis Ensemble and Opera Elect) alike; premieres and first realizations include performances by the S.E.M. Ensemble, Jeff Stern and Matt Keown of the icarus Quartet, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and numerous versions of his own ensembles. Additionally, he is active on drums, percussion, vocals, and keyboards throughout New York in groups variously established, emerging, and ad hoc.
In the recording domain, Griffin regularly works as a performer, producer, and engineer in a wide range of styles at studios such as Figure 8 Recording, Gary’s Electric, Better Company Studios, Good Child Music, Strange Weather, Short Stack, and Voyager Sound Studios, among others.
Griffin received a B.A. from Yale in 2018, where he studied Music and English and was awarded the Clapp Fellowship in poetry. That same year he was named a winner of the Connecticut Circuit Poetry Contest.
Photo by Melanie Carlstad