Brian Penkrot

Instructor

Brian Penkrot is a composer and performer based in Chicago, Illinois. He embraces both tradition and technology, incorporating theatrical elements and digital media in his works. Brian's compositions employ analogy and narrative structures to emphasize and question where boundaries exist, both musically and logically.

Commissions and performances have included collaborations with International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, ECCE, the Flannau Duo, the Enid Trio, Morton Feldman Chamber Players, the Center for New Music (Iowa), Steven Banks, Tom Snydacker, Zach Good, Thiago Ancelmo, Christopher Narloch, Kayleigh Butcher, Thea Brown, and the Annoyance Theater (Chicago). Brian's works have appeared throughout the US and in Europe and Asia. His music has been included at festivals and conferences including June in Buffalo (Buffalo, NY), soundSCAPE (Pavia, IT), La Pietra (Florence, IT) Frequency Festival (Chicago, IL), NEON (Las Vegas, NV), International Double Reed Society (Appleton, WI), North American Saxophone Alliance (Champaign, IL), and Society of Composers Inc Regional (Portsmouth, NH) and National conferences (Charleston, SC). Brian was also awarded a grant from the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland, to study the compositional sketches of Gerard Grisey. He is currently completing research on the evolution of methodology through Les Espaces Acoustiques.

Brian is the B and a P in the duo/trio BCJsPs. Described as "chaotic, at times athletic, and always confident," (Iowa Public Radio) and "like the Red Hot Chili Peppers got crushed in a hydraulic press and nestled in microfiche at your local library," BCJsPs is a free form ensemble focusing on improvisation. Their albums The Myth Arc and You Are a Human Being and You Deserve This are available through Ox Cart New Music.

As a guitarist Brian has performed the Midwest premier of Pulitzer Prize finalist Jake Romig's The Complexity of Distance, an hour-long solo of doom metal. He also recorded the guitar samples for the Musical Instrument Samples library at the University of Iowa. As a violinist, he has played with the Lake Shore Symphony Orchestra (Chicago, IL). Brian studied guitar with Frank Dawson at Columbia College and violin with Katie Wolfe at the University of Iowa. He has performed at numerous festivals and venues, including Mission Creek (Iowa City, IA), Frequency Festival (Chicago, IL), and the Chicago Improv Festival (Chicago, IL).

Brian is a dedicated educator, teaching music theory, composition, and computer music at Northern Illinois University. He joined the board of Ensemble Dal Niente in 2017 as the treasurer and has served as the board chair since 2019. Brian received his masters from UNLV, where studied with Jorge Grossman, Virko Baley, and Ricardo Zohn Muldoon. Brian received his PhD from the University of Iowa, where he studied with David Gompper and Larry Fritts.