Brian Lloyd Christian (b. 1980)

is a classically trained music teacher, collaborative pianist, composer, and conductor. As an evangelical Christian, Brian is interested in glorifying God through creating music and reaching out to needy communities. He has taught music in the inner-cities of Oakland, Baltimore, and Chicago. He believes music, like the Christian gospel, should be shared with all nations and ethnicities.

Born in Berkeley, California, he has played piano since age five and composed since age eleven. He has studied composition with David Pereira, Peter Josheff, Nicholas Maw, and Kevin Puts, orchestration with Olly Wilson and Paul Matthews, piano with Machiko Kobialka and Jeanne Stark, and conducting with David Milnes and Marika Kuzma. He has also had composition lessons with Chen Yi and Libby Larson.

He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.A. in Music. During his undergraduate years, he won first prize in the collegiate division of the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition, and performed Prokofiev's third piano concerto with the university orchestra. After graduating from Berkeley, Brian co-produced performances of his operetta The Little Prince with the aid of student opera singers, and he accompanied the university's opera performance class under Jonathan Khuner's mentorship.

He earned his M.M. in Composition from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. During that time, he studied opera coaching and diction with Eileen Cornett, assisted the Baltimore Opera in their production of Romeo and Juliet, played piano for rehearsals of Albert Herring with Opera Vivente, and composed, coached, and accompanied his opera scene, Eva, which was produced by the Peabody opera department as part of their Opera Etudes project.

He is also a composer of other vocal music: his choral piece Virtue was selected for a reading and recording session by the Peabody Singers. His song cycle Six Love Songs for Soprano was hailed as "flawless" by Phyllis Bryn-Julson and "a competition winner" by Stanley Cornett. Upon graduation he was awarded the Gustav Klemm award for exemplary work in composition. He arranged the orchestral score of La Boheme for piano and string quartet in 2010. He is currently working on composing Six French Sweets for his wife, pianist Clara Christian. He teaches piano lessons through the Faith Community School of the Arts as well as in his private studio.

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