Brett Dean

Born 1961, Brett Dean studied in Brisbane, Australia before moving to Germany in 1984 where he was a permanent member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for fourteen years. He began composing in 1988, initially concentrating on experimental film and radio projects and as an improvising performer. Dean’s reputation as a composer continued to develop, and it was through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel´s Music (1995), which won an award from the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, and Carlo (1997) for strings, sampler and tape, inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo, that he gained international recognition. In 2000 Dean returned to his native Australia to concentrate on his composition, and he now shares his time between homes in Melbourne and Berlin.

Dean’s work draws from literary, political or visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by paintings by his wife Heather Betts. Dean studied in Brisbane before moving to Germany in 1984 where he was a permanent member of the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years. In 1988 he began composing alongside his orchestral work, initially concentrating on experimental film and radio projects and as an improvising performer. He became established as a composer through works such his clarinet concerto Ariel's Music(1995), which won an award from the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, and Carlo (1997) for strings, sampler and tape, inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo.

In 2009, Brett Dean won the Grawemeyer Award for music composition for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing and received the Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York in 2011. His first opera, Bliss, was commissioned and given its premiere in 2010 by Opera Australia in Melbourne, and has since received further performances in Sydney, Hamburg and at the Edinburgh International Festival. Recent commissions includeThe Last Days of Socrates, a large-scale choral-orchestral work for the Berlin Rundfunkchor, Melbourne Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, premiered in 2013.