Brett Dean

Brett Dean was born and studied in Australia before moving to Germany. He was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years, during which time he began composing. His music is championed by leading conductors and orchestras worldwide, including Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, and Marin Alsop. Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political, environmental or visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by artwork by his wife Heather Betts.

Dean began composing in 1988, gaining international recognition through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel’s Music (1995) and Carlo (1997), inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo. In 2009 Dean won the Grawemeyer Award for violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, and in 2017 his second opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, winning a South Bank Sky Arts Award and International Opera Award. In 2023 he won the Ivor Novello Award for Orchestral Composition for his Cello Concerto. Dean was Composer in Residence of the London Philharmonic from 2019-2023, and at the Wigmore Hall for the 2023/24 season.

Alongside composing, Dean performs widely as a conductor and violist, and during the 2024/25 season will conduct the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Riot Ensemble and Australian National Academy of Music. He plays chamber music at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Rheingau Musik Festival, Hatfield House Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Ludlow Song and Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, where Dean’s I Starred Last Night, I Shone receives its world premiere in a new version for voice and string trio. The season includes the German premiere of Fire Music with the Berlin Philharmonic / Alsop and the Spanish premiere of Dean’s In spe contra spem by the Orquesta Nacional de España / Jaime Martín.