Gregers Brinch

I draw my musical inspiration from many sources. In particular I am inspired by the qualities of the musical intervals, which, by association, make me commit to a sense of tonality in general. But also the timbre of voices and instruments drives my musical ideas resulting in my experiencing the instruments and the elements of music as being human expressions without intellectual content, more like concentrated soul-expression and soul-experience undergone by the human being. In my composition I aim to invite the listener to anticipate and yet I allow the music to challenge as well. In a compositional process I experience an interplay between myself and the will of the piece itself. I have the experience of an entity that wishes to express itself and yet does not dictate. It is at one and the same time a riddle and a guide. In turn, my task is to discern its nature and reveal this to the audience. As a result of my study into the basic elements of music and my appreciation of all genres of music, my tonal language is a synthesis of various genres. Upon completing an intensive period of autodidactic training with the help of Cecil Cope and Louis Alvanis, I entered the Musikseminar in Hamburg, Germany to study composition with Elmar Lampson (now called Alfred Schnittke Akademie Internationalhttp://www.schnittke-akademie.de). Here I graduated with diplomas in composition and piano in 1992 and went on to teach in adult education both in Hamburg and at Emerson College, Sussex, England. During this time I continued to devote more time to developing my compositional direction. In 2001 I gave up my secure post there in order to pursue composing more fully,and my compositional output has increased from this time onwards. The CD ‘Blue Harmony’ which features my piano-works recorded by internationally acclaimed pianist Diana Baker, the CD ‘Harmonious Dissonance’ which includes my String Quartet No.1 was released on Parma Records in USA in June 2010. The collaboration with award-winning Flautist Julie Groves and Whitbread-Prize winning author Lindsay Clarke has resulted in a number of works for Baritone and Flute and Flute solo on the theme of Parzival. Having worked with ancient tonalities and developed an interest in the qualitative properties of number and numerical relationships in relation to sound and composition and musical improvisation. I am very excited to be part of this Mathematics and Mythos project.