Brendan McMullen is a composer from Seattle, Washington, who loves writing music inspired by the Pacific Northwest. Brendan holds a bachelor of music from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he graduated cum laude and earned the Farb Family award for outstanding achievement and master of music from the University of Michigan where he studied with Bright Sheng and Evan Chambers. He was a New Music Workshop Fellow at the 2013 Norfolk New Music Workshop with Martin Bresnick. In 2014, Brendan studied with Steven Stucky, George Tsontakis, and Sydney Hodkinson as a Composition Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School.
He has attended the HighSCORE Contemporary Music Festival in Pavia, Italy, twice, and Music Composition at FUBiS in Berlin with Samuel Adler and has presented in master classes with John Adams, Gabrielle Lena Frank, Brett Dean, and John Corigliano. Brendan has received commissions from the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Collaborative Orchestra. Brendan enjoys exploring the interaction between music and technology and is very excited to continue his studies at the University of Pennsylvania.