Bella D Photography
Brian Ciach (pronounced “SIGH-ack“, born 1977) is a composer, new music pianist, and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose music has been described as "remarkably inventive" (Bloomington Herald Times) and "beautifully scored" (New Music Box). Among his works are seven piano sonatas, the 80-minute, Variations Promethean, for piano and electronics, a Vegetable Requiem for hand-made vegetable ocarinas, and Collective Uncommon, a set of orchestra studies inspired by the Mütter Museum (a medical oddities museum in Philadelphia), which calls for amplified cabbages, mac and cheese, and talking dolls. The winner of two American Prizes and winner of the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Composition Competition, his works have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and Alarm Will Sound, among many others. He has given world premieres of numerous works as a new music pianist in several concert halls across the US, including Carnegie Hall. Brian holds a Doctor of Music in composition from Indiana University, and two master’s degrees in composition and piano performance, as well as a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Temple University. Brian is Lecturer of Music Theory and Composition at San Jose State University, the Assistant Director and Instructor of Piano, Music Theory, Composition, and Improvisation at the Hunter School of Music in San Jose. His compositions are published by Potenza Music.
Dr. Ciach studied piano with Charles Abramovic, Lambert Orkis, Harvey Wedeen, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn at Temple University, where he earned two concurrent master's degrees in piano performance and composition and a bachelor's degree in piano performance (summa cum laude). He studied composition with Maurice Wright, Matthew Greenbaum, and Richard Brodhead at Temple, as well. For doctoral studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, Ciach studied composition with Claude Baker, Don Freund, John Gibson (electro-acoustic), Jeffrey Hass (electro-acoustic), P.Q. Phan, and Sven-David Sandström. Additional studies were with Samuel Adler in the Music Composition Course at the Freie Universität Berlin in the summers of 2008 and 2009. Brian studied privately with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Richard Wernick from 2004 to 2006.
Brian has premiered his music at the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, at Peterskirche in Vienna (where Mozart’s funeral service was held), the Neue Synagoge Berlin, St. Mary’s Church in Pavia, Italy, the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Petite Trianon Theatre in San Jose, Orchestra Hall at Minnesota Orchestra, the Missouri Theatre, the Musical Arts Center at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the Greenwich Music House in New York City, at Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, and several other venues across the United States.
His music has been heard at the Hot Air Music Festival at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Cisum Percussion’s Composing for Percussion Workshop in Brooklyn, NY, the New Music on the Bayou Festival in Monroe, Louisiana, the 48-Hour Opera Festival at the Custom Made Theater in San Francisco, at the Breaking the Fourth Wall New Music Festival at the Bloomington College Mall (Indiana), at two International Tuba Euphonium Conferences (ITEC), the 22nd Annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electroacoustic Music, the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Festival, SEAMUS, the Ball State Festival of New Music, the Midwest Composers Symposium, Freie Universität Berlin International Summer Music Composition Program, and the soundSCAPE International Contemporary Music Festival.
He has won the 2018 and 2019 American Prize in composition in the orchestra and vocal chamber music professional divisions, the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Composition Competition, the Presser Music Award, two Indiana University Dean’s Prizes, the Jacobs Music Steinway Award, the National Federation of Music Clubs Emil and Ruth Beyer Composition Award, several ASCAPlus Awards, the Murray State University College of Humanities and Fine Arts Scholarly and Creative Activity Award, and the John Henry Heller, Jr. Award for Excellence in Music Composition, among others.
Brian has performed and recorded all of his works for piano, premiered Bells for piano and iPod at Temple University by Paul Geissinger, premiered a piano trio by Maurice Wright in Carnegie Hall, and recorded a CD of new chamber works by Emiliano Pardo-Tristán. In 2016, Ciach released his Fourth Piano Sonata EP, and, in 2014, his Third Piano Sonata Album on iTunes. Dr. Ciach's Master's Piano Recital at Temple University included a from-memory performance of J.S. Bach's Fifth Partita in G Major, Schoenberg's Suite for Piano, Op. 25, and Richard Wernick's Piano Sonata No. 1, which received the following review: "The composer, who was present and who received a warm ovation at the end of the performance, was astonished to see Ciach come on stage to play his piece without any sign of a score in evidence–"Surely he’s not going to play it from memory!", he exclaimed. That, however, is exactly what Ciach did–triumphantly, for though I have heard the sonata played superbly both by Lambert Orkis (another Temple faculty member), for whom it and Wernick’s recent Second Sonata were written, and by the Australian-born Geoffrey Douglas Madge, I found Ciach’s realization fully worthy to stand on equal terms with those two eminent pianists’ readings. Brian Ciach is not a master merely in the sense of academic certification, but a pianist, and a musician, you will want to get to know…and I assure you that it is a name you will be hearing much of in the not too distant future.” (Jacobson, S&H International).
Dr. Ciach is an active piano improviser, and in 2012 released the SoundCloud album, Doppelgänger, which features electronically processed "twins". Ciach also loves to cook, and can often be found in the kitchen creating dishes for his wife, Adit, and their son, Boaz.
Dr. Ciach studied piano with Charles Abramovic, Lambert Orkis, Harvey Wedeen, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn at Temple University, where he earned two concurrent master's degrees in piano performance and composition and a bachelor's degree in piano performance (summa cum laude). He studied composition with Maurice Wright, Matthew Greenbaum, and Richard Brodhead at Temple, as well. For doctoral studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, Ciach studied composition with Claude Baker, Don Freund, John Gibson (electro-acoustic), Jeffrey Hass (electro-acoustic), P.Q. Phan, and Sven-David Sandström. Additional studies were with Samuel Adler in the Music Composition Course at the Freie Universität Berlin in the summers of 2008 and 2009. Brian studied privately with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Richard Wernick from 2004 to 2006.
Brian has premiered his music at the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, at Peterskirche in Vienna (where Mozart’s funeral service was held), the Neue Synagoge Berlin, St. Mary’s Church in Pavia, Italy, the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Petite Trianon Theatre in San Jose, Orchestra Hall at Minnesota Orchestra, the Missouri Theatre, the Musical Arts Center at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the Greenwich Music House in New York City, at Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, and several other venues across the United States.
His music has been heard at the Hot Air Music Festival at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Cisum Percussion’s Composing for Percussion Workshop in Brooklyn, NY, the New Music on the Bayou Festival in Monroe, Louisiana, the 48-Hour Opera Festival at the Custom Made Theater in San Francisco, at the Breaking the Fourth Wall New Music Festival at the Bloomington College Mall (Indiana), at two International Tuba Euphonium Conferences (ITEC), the 22nd Annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electroacoustic Music, the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Festival, SEAMUS, the Ball State Festival of New Music, the Midwest Composers Symposium, Freie Universität Berlin International Summer Music Composition Program, and the soundSCAPE International Contemporary Music Festival.
He has won the 2018 and 2019 American Prize in composition in the orchestra and vocal chamber music professional divisions, the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Composition Competition, the Presser Music Award, two Indiana University Dean’s Prizes, the Jacobs Music Steinway Award, the National Federation of Music Clubs Emil and Ruth Beyer Composition Award, several ASCAPlus Awards, the Murray State University College of Humanities and Fine Arts Scholarly and Creative Activity Award, and the John Henry Heller, Jr. Award for Excellence in Music Composition, among others.
Brian has performed and recorded all of his works for piano, premiered Bells for piano and iPod at Temple University by Paul Geissinger, premiered a piano trio by Maurice Wright in Carnegie Hall, and recorded a CD of new chamber works by Emiliano Pardo-Tristán. In 2016, Ciach released his Fourth Piano Sonata EP, and, in 2014, his Third Piano Sonata Album on iTunes. Dr. Ciach's Master's Piano Recital at Temple University included a from-memory performance of J.S. Bach's Fifth Partita in G Major, Schoenberg's Suite for Piano, Op. 25, and Richard Wernick's Piano Sonata No. 1, which received the following review: "The composer, who was present and who received a warm ovation at the end of the performance, was astonished to see Ciach come on stage to play his piece without any sign of a score in evidence–"Surely he’s not going to play it from memory!", he exclaimed. That, however, is exactly what Ciach did–triumphantly, for though I have heard the sonata played superbly both by Lambert Orkis (another Temple faculty member), for whom it and Wernick’s recent Second Sonata were written, and by the Australian-born Geoffrey Douglas Madge, I found Ciach’s realization fully worthy to stand on equal terms with those two eminent pianists’ readings. Brian Ciach is not a master merely in the sense of academic certification, but a pianist, and a musician, you will want to get to know…and I assure you that it is a name you will be hearing much of in the not too distant future.” (Jacobson, S&H International).
Dr. Ciach is an active piano improviser, and in 2012 released the SoundCloud album, Doppelgänger, which features electronically processed "twins". Ciach also loves to cook, and can often be found in the kitchen creating dishes for his wife, Adit, and their son, Boaz.
Press Documents:
| ciach_brian_curriculum_vitae_2023_v2.pdf |
| ciach_bio.pdf |
| brian_ciach__head_shot___palo_alto_.jpg |