William David Brohn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William David Brohn is an award-winning arranger and orchestrator, best known for his theatre scores of musicals such as Miss Saigon, Ragtime and Wicked.
His work has been eclectic, orchestrating many different styles of music, and his experience has made him one of the world's most listened-to theatre arrangers. In his modern scores, he has been seen to set the standard of keyboard writing for the orchestra pit, creating the perfect balance between acoustic and synthesised sounds. For his arrangements to Miss Saigon:
“Bill Brohn…worked electronic instruments, gamelan and wind chimes into an Eastern-Western sounding orchestration” (Citron, Stephen: The Musical from the Inside Out)
Brohn is also one of the few theatre orchestrators to use the E-bow attachment to the electric guitar, which can be heard in his recent orchestrations to Wicked and Mary Poppins.
Contents |
[edit] Education
Brohn studied Music Theory at the Michigan State University (1955), Composition at the New England Conservatory (1958) and took further education in Tanglewood, Massachusetts and in Salzburg, Austria. He was also mentored by the esteemed arranger Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981), who is credited by some to be responsible for the ‘Broadway Sound’ of the big American musical.
Whilst a student, William performed on the Contrabass with dance bands, and some of these jazz and pop elements can be seen regularly in his Broadway arrangements. William then briefly worked as a conductor for the Royal Ballet (New York and American tour), the Robert Joffrey Ballet, and for various Broadway musicals before settling down into arranging and composition.
In 1996 Brohn was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from the Michigan State University and later presented a master class there entitled “The Future of Musical Theatre” in 2004
[edit] Theatre works
- 2008 - Gone With The Wind
- 2007 - Curtains
- 2006 - Mary Poppins
- 2004 - Show Boat
- 2003 – Wicked
- 2002 - Sweet Smell of Success: The Musical
- 2002 - A Man of No Importance
- 2001 - My Fair Lady
- 2001 - South Pacific
- 2000 - The Witches of Eastwick
- 1998 - O! Freedom (Co-Arranger)
- 1998 - Hey, Mr. Producer (Co-Orchestrator)
- 1998 - High Society
- 1998 - Oklahoma (Additional Orchestrations)
- 1996/8 Ragtime (1998 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations, New York Drama Desk Award)
- 1995/9 Martin Guerre
- 1995 – Oliver
- 1994 - Busker Alley (by the Sherman Brothers)
- 1993 - The Red Shoes
- 1992 - Crazy for You (New York Drama Desk Award)
- 1992 - The Secret Garden (New York Drama Desk Award)
- 1992 - Carousel
- 1992 - 110 in the Shade (Additional orchestrations)
- 1989 - Jerome Robbins’ Broadway
- 1989 - Miss Saigon (New York Drama Desk Award)
- 1986 - The Boys in Autumn (Incidental music for the Broadway play)
- 1985 - Wind in the Willows
- 1984 - The Three Musketeers (Revival/additional orchestrations)
- 1984 - Gotta Getaway
- 1983 - Marilyn
- 1980 - Brigadoon (Revival)
- 1978 - King of Hearts
- 1978 - Timbuktu! (Additional orchestrations)
- 1976 - Rockabye Hamlet (Additional orchestrations)
- 1975 - Rodgers & Hart (Additional orchestrations)
[edit] Orchestral works
William Brohn has provided music for the Boston Pops Orchestra, including various adaptations of Christmas and theatre music, as well as for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl. In 1987 Brohn was commissioned to make an adaptation of Prokofiev’s film scores Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible which were later recorded onto C.D.
[edit] Works for film
- Anastasia
- Endless Love
- Blue Thunder
- War Games
- Who’s Life Is It, Anyway?
[edit] Collaborations
For the theatre, William has made writing collaborations with [Sir Cameron Mackintosh] (orchestrating aprox. ten of his shows) and Sir Trevor Nunn and the Royal National Theatre, London (approx. four shows), among others.
Other than his theatre collaborations, William Brohn has provided arrangements for the singers Liza Minnelli (the complete orchestrations to her Minnelli on Minnelli tour, 1999-2000) Marilyn Horne, Rene Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Placido Domingo and Jerry Hadley which have all been recorded, and he has worked on numerous Ballet scores with Agnes de Mille, Lar Lubovitch, Twyla Tharp, Susan Stroman and the American Ballet Theatre. Brohn has also collaborated with conductions such as Andre Previn, John Williams and Keith Lockhart.
A Sony CD for Bernstein’s West Side Story, which Brohn arranged featuring Joshua Bell as violin soloist, was released in 2001. He also made arrangements for Sir James Galway on his Sony CD Wind Beneath My Wings.
