Spring Break
Renaissance man conducts own career
Nicholas Brown '10 proves sleep to be a luxury as he tackles life in school, as well as the military.
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
News | 12/4/07
Posted online at 1:07 AM EST on 1/15/08
On a typical night, Nicholas Brown '10 gets about three to five hours of sleep. "Some people say I run the music department. I don't really, but I do everything to support it," he says.
Brown is a member of and manager for the Brandeis Chorus and Chamber Choir, plays french horn in the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra, is a founding member and director of both the Free Play Theater Cooperative and the Irving Fine Society and is a sometime stage manager for the Brandeis Theater Company. All of which is not to mention his work with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the 215th Army Band.
A Music History major, Brown has his sights on conducting rather than performance or composition.
"The goal is to be a conductor, for sure, and hopefully be the conductor of a major orchestra, one day. As an undergrad you can't really do a major in conducting, so what I'm trying to do is kind of get a broad education and understanding of all the things you need to know," he says.
In addition to his classes at Brandeis, Brown also studies conducting at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. "A lot of what I'm doing here is learning the more theoretical sides to analyzing music," he says. "I'm focusing on knowledge and learning repertoire. But that's the big dream goal, is to be a conductor. It's not one of those things that there's a clear path as to what you need to do to make it. There's a lot of luck and networking that's involved."
Brown practices his conducting skills with the Irving Fine Society, a small vocal and instrumental ensemble that he convened last year to play 20th century and modern classical music, "in honor of Irving Fine, [founder of the School of Creative Arts and the music department at Brandeis]," Brown says.
"The 20th century [in music] is what I want to know most about," he says. Brown, whose favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Irving Fine and Leonard Bernstein, feels that there's a lack of knowledge about 20th century music, even in the music community.
Brown is a member of and manager for the Brandeis Chorus and Chamber Choir, plays french horn in the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra, is a founding member and director of both the Free Play Theater Cooperative and the Irving Fine Society and is a sometime stage manager for the Brandeis Theater Company. All of which is not to mention his work with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the 215th Army Band.
A Music History major, Brown has his sights on conducting rather than performance or composition.
"The goal is to be a conductor, for sure, and hopefully be the conductor of a major orchestra, one day. As an undergrad you can't really do a major in conducting, so what I'm trying to do is kind of get a broad education and understanding of all the things you need to know," he says.
In addition to his classes at Brandeis, Brown also studies conducting at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. "A lot of what I'm doing here is learning the more theoretical sides to analyzing music," he says. "I'm focusing on knowledge and learning repertoire. But that's the big dream goal, is to be a conductor. It's not one of those things that there's a clear path as to what you need to do to make it. There's a lot of luck and networking that's involved."
Brown practices his conducting skills with the Irving Fine Society, a small vocal and instrumental ensemble that he convened last year to play 20th century and modern classical music, "in honor of Irving Fine, [founder of the School of Creative Arts and the music department at Brandeis]," Brown says.
"The 20th century [in music] is what I want to know most about," he says. Brown, whose favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Irving Fine and Leonard Bernstein, feels that there's a lack of knowledge about 20th century music, even in the music community.
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