Bassist Miles Brown will be the featured soloist for the world premiere of “Incino Arvum,” a new concerto by Mizzou professor emeritus of composition W. Thomas McKenney that will be performed by the MU Wind Ensemble in a concert at 7:00 p.m. Friday, April 26 at the Missouri Theatre.
During his residency on campus, Brown (pictured) also will make a presentation to student composers, coach the Concert Jazz Band, and give private bass lessons.
A composer and teacher as well as a bassist, Brown is an assistant professor of string bass and jazz at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE.
He earned his bachelor and doctorate degrees in jazz performance studies from the Eastman School of Music, as well as a master’s degree from the Mannes College of Music in classical bass performance. Brown previously has taught at institutions including the Eastman School of Music, Oakland University, Cornell University, University of Rochester, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins, York College of Pennsylvania, and the Community College of Baltimore County. He also has led master classes at Ohio University, Ithaca College, Duke University, Hamilton College, and the University of South Carolina.
As the bassist for the contemporary music group Alarm Will Sound, which since 2010 has served as resident ensemble for the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Brown already is quite familiar with Columbia and the University of Missouri. He has performed with AWS in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebow, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, and more; and has recorded with the group on labels including Nonesuch Records and Cantaloupe Records.
Alarm Will Sound has performed his compositions at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, and numerous other ensembles also have played his original works and arrangements.
As a jazz performer, Brown has led groups featured at the Syracuse Jazz Festival, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, and the Blue Note, and has recorded on the Native Language, Leading Tone, and Yummy House labels. He has released two CDs as a bandleader: Share My Life in 2007, and Middle Game in 2016.