Brett Dean

Brett Dean was born and educated 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 many of the world’s leading conductors and orchestras, including Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop, and Sakari Oramo. Much of Dean’s work draws on literary, political, environmental, and visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by artworks by his wife, Heather Betts.

Dean began composing in 1988, initially focusing on experimental film and radio projects as well as work as an improvising performer. His reputation as a composer continued to grow, and it was through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel’s Music (1995), which received an award from the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, and Carlo (1997) for strings, sampler, and tape— inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo — that he gained international recognition. Dean won the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, and in 2016 was awarded the Don Banks Music Award by the Australia Council, recognising his sustained and significant contribution to Australia’s musical life.

In 2017, his second opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne Festival Opera to great acclaim. It has since been performed at Cologne Opera, the Adelaide Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and Opera Australia, and won both the 2018 South Bank Sky Arts Award and the International Opera Award for Best New Opera.

In 2022, Dean received the Ivor Novello Award for Chamber Ensemble Composition for Madame ma bonne sœur, written for mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and the Armida Quartet. In 2023, he won the Ivor Novello Award for Orchestral Composition for his Cello Concerto, composed for Alban Gerhardt. Other major works include a Piano Concerto for Jonathan Biss and a Trumpet Concerto for Håkan Hardenberger. Recent compositions include the orchestral work Nocturnes and Night Rides for the Bayerische Staatsorchester, and In spe contra spem for two sopranos and orchestra, premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2023.

Dean served as Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019 to 2023, and at Wigmore Hall during the 2023/24 season. In 2024, he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Composition and Contemporary Music Department at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Alongside his composing career, Dean enjoys a prolific performing life as both violist and conductor, frequently performing his own Viola Concerto with leading orchestras worldwide. A natural chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with soloists and ensembles including the Doric Quartet, the Scharoun Ensemble, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the Australian National Academy of Music. His imaginative conducting programmes often centre on his own works alongside music by other composers. Past performance highlights include appearances with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

As a composer, the 2025/26 season includes a residency at the Krzyżowa Music Festival in Poland, followed by the world premiere of String Quartet No. 4 (A Little Book of Prayers), commissioned by the Belcea Quartet in memory of its former second violinist, Laura Samuel. The premiere will take place at Carnegie Hall in New York, with subsequent performances at the Ukaria Cultural Centre in Australia, the Philharmonie de Paris, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, the Kölner Philharmonie, and the Wiener Konzerthaus. Dean’s new opera Of One Blood will also premiere at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, nearly a decade after Hamlet received international critical acclaim. Elsewhere during the season, Dean appears as soloist in his own Viola Concerto with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken.

Dean’s music has been recorded for BIS, Chandos, Warner Classics, ECM Records, and ABC Classics. Highlights include a BIS release in 2016 featuring Shadow Music, Testament, Short Stories, and Etudenfest, performed by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Dean’s direction. His Viola Concerto has also been released on BIS with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The DVD recording of Hamlet, released by Glyndebourne in June 2018, received a Gramophone Award in 2019.