Composer • Pianist • Pedagogue
“Ciach was the composer most intent upon letting his imagination run wild all over the music (hence the cabbages and dolls), but he also had the strongest sense of how to create layers of sounds…”
—Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
“In watching his performance and hearing the way it was composed, it was obvious that [Ciach] had a deep personal connection with each note that he played.”
—Aaron Ziegler, Rising: Contemporary Music at UI
“a name you will be hearing much of in the not-too-distant future.”
—Bernard Jacobson, Seen & Heard International
Brian Ciach
Brian Ciach is a composer, new-music pianist, and pedagogue based in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose work has been described as “remarkably inventive” (Bloomington Herald Times) and “beautifully scored” (NewMusicBox). His imaginative sound world bridges the whimsical and the profound—whether writing for orchestra, amplified cabbages, mac-and-cheese, and talking dolls in Collective Uncommon, or crafting virtuosic concert works such as his seven piano sonatas or The Book of Muses: nine modal preludes and fugues inspired by the Nine Muses of Greek Mythology.
Winner of two American Prizes and the American Liszt Society Bicentennial Composition Competition, Ciach’s music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Alterity Chamber Orchestra, and Trio Siciliano, among many others. As a pianist, he has premiered numerous new works across the United States, including at Carnegie Hall. His compositions have been heard internationally at venues such as St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London), National Concert Hall (Dublin), Peterskirche (Vienna), and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Ciach holds a Doctor of Music in Composition from Indiana University, where he studied with Claude Baker, Don Freund, and Sven-David Sandström, and dual Master’s Degrees in Composition and Piano Performance from Temple University, where he studied with Charles Abramovic. He currently serves as Lecturer in Music Theory and Composition at San José State University. His works are published by Potenza Music.