Brett Carson

Brett Carson is a composer, pianist, improviser, poet, and theater artist based in Berkeley CA. His compositional work, which has been described as “fascinatingly intense” (Stephen Smoliar, SF Classical Voice), explores the juxtaposition of a gleefully chaotic plurality of musical approaches. This is combined with a penchant for surreal world-building and an exploration of the bizarre and uncanny, along with a commitment to writing for the voice and the stage.

Notable projects include the song cycle Mysterious Descent (2017) which was partially written in an invented language “Kôktimo”, Just Visiting (X-Ray Vision) (2018), a post-apocalyptic chamber opera, The Killing Jar (2021) a dystopian  meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic, and The Secret Life of the Paramecium (2022), a multimedia song cycle combining the tarot and microbiology. His most recent project, Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS, is an experimental opera created in collaboration with the Friction Quartet which saw its premiere in July of 2024 at the Dresher Ensemble Studio in Oakland.

In addition to his compositional work, he enjoys a career as a pianist, keyboardist, and synthesist, having performed internationally in the realms of free improvisation, contemporary classical music, jazz, and rock. Performing venues and festivals include the Chicago Jazz Festival, Sons d’hiver, Roulette, the Barbican, the Kennedy Center, the Broad (LA), and SESC Pompeia (Brazil). He has worked with a wide variety of composers/performers including Bill Baird, Brian Baumbusch, Nicolas Collins, Sidney Corbett, Vinny Golia, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Noertker, Zeena Parkins, Rent Romus, and William Winant. From 2019-20, he performed as the pianist for the legendary jazz unit the Art Ensemble of Chicago.