The Monmouth Civic Chorus
Dr. Ryan Brandau, Artistic Director
Close to Perfect, Close to Home

Conductor Ryan James Brandau has enjoyed leading a variety of choral and orchestral ensembles. Dr. Brandau returns to the east coast from California, where he was Artistic Director of the Santa Clara Chorale, Director of Choral Activities at Santa Clara University, and interim Artistic Director of Musae. With the Chorale and the choirs of SCU, he collaborated with the Symphony Silicon Valley. Prior to these appointments, he was Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Smith College in Northampton, MA; choirmaster of the highly acclaimed all-professional choir of Christ Church, New Haven, CT; and director of the Valley Voices, a chamber chorus in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley. He has also worked with the United Girls Choir of North Haven and the Episcopal Church at Yale, served as principal assistant conductor of the Yale Camerata, and taught counterpoint and harmony in the music department at Yale College. As a professional singer, he has performed with ensembles in the US, Europe, and Asia, including the American Bach Soloists, the Arcadia Players, the Yale Schola Cantorum, and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge. He remains active as a choral arranger, composer, and clinician, and his arrangements and compositions have been featured by choral ensembles throughout the US and Europe. Dr. Brandau was recently appointed as Artistic Director of Princeton Pro Musica, in addition to the Monmouth Civic Chorus.

Ryan received the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Musical Arts degrees from the Yale School of Music, where he studied conducting with Simon Carrington and Marguerite Brooks. Prior to pursuing graduate study in conducting, Ryan attended the University of Cambridge in the UK as a Gates Scholar, earning an MPhil in historical musicology. In Cambridge, he founded a women's chamber choir, Conspiratio, and sang with the choirs of Jesus, King's, and Clare Colleges. He received his B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.