Ryan James Brandau is a conductor and arranger based in New York City. Among audiences, he is best known for dynamic and uplifting choral and orchestral performances, whether he himself is at the podium or his arrangements on the program. The New York Times hailed his recent debut appearance at Trinity Church Wall Street, conducting its iconic annual Messiah, “the gold standard” against which others “paled in comparison.” For both expert and new listeners, his interpretations are at once resplendent with the past and resonant with the present, earning the Times’ praise as “urgent and eloquent,” “burning and gladdening,” “intimate, alternately sober and joyous,” and, most essential to Ryan’s pervasive artistic intent, “modest yet monumental.” His repertoire spans the Renaissance and Baroque, contemporary music, and the full gamut of large-scale choral-orchestral masterworks.
Among musicians, he is perhaps better known for a clarity of vision and mastery of craft that is uncommonly equaled by a commitment to collaboration with vocalists and instrumentalists — a potent alchemy that not only produces music of the highest level, but invites participation in his music-made joy.
In New York City, he is the founder and Director of Res Facta, a vocal ensemble bringing together 14 of the city’s finest professional vocalists “of the most impactful and even thrilling sounds,” and the longtime Artistic Director of Amor Artis, a chamber choir and Baroque orchestra, which specializes in bridging the Renaissance and Baroque to the present day. He is also the Artistic Director of the symphonic chorus and orchestra, Princeton Pro Musica — winner of the 2021 American Price for choral performance — and Monmouth Civic Chorus, both in New Jersey. In addition to leading his own ensembles, he is a conductor for the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and has prepared choruses for the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Phildelphia Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony, for conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, and others. His June 2022 preparation for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, sung by fewer than 70 choristers, through masks, was hailed by the Philadelphia Enquirer as “quite strong . . . unified—yet finely colored.”
As a choral and orchestral arranger, Ryan is equal parts artistic innovator and technical practitioner, taking pride in works that are as rewarding for musicians as they are for audiences. His expansive holiday repertoire in particular is lauded as “inventive,” “unfailingly gratifying,” and “in a class by itself” by the directors, vocalists, and instrumentalists of the many volunteer to professional ensembles that showcase their best through his well-crafted arrangements and meticulous orchestrations.
He is committed to collaboration with emerging artists and educational organizations, cross-cultural exploration, and building bridges for new audiences by presenting classical works in dialogue with contemporary themes and new music. He served on a panel presenting “the non-idiomatic music of Black composers” for the New Jersey Choral Consortium. Recent seasons’ highlights have included presenting Handel’s Solomon with New York Baroque, Inc.; Bach’s St. John Passion with La Fiocco; a presentation of Jasmine Barnes’ Portraits: Douglass and Tubman alongside Mozart’s Requiem; creating a multimedia presentation of Carmina Burana with the Roxey Ballet; and featuring on subscription concerts the singing of the Princeton Girlchoir, the Trenton Children’s Chorus, the New Jersey Youth Chorus, and top high school choral ensembles. He is the treasurer and a board member of the New York Choral Consortium, in New York City.
A lover and scholar of music, he is also a prolific writer and presenter on music, serving for many years as a host of Sounds Choral on WWFM, creating in-depth program notes and essays for his own and other ensembles, and curating and presenting lecture series and special educational events.
Ryan has taught and conducted at Westminster Choir College, Santa Clara University, and Smith College. He was the choirmaster of the acclaimed all-professional choir at Christ Church, New Haven, and has been invited to guest conduct at Trinity Church, Wall Street, and the Bach Vespers series at Holy Trinity Lutheran, both in New York City. He received the Master of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded the Dean Horatio Parker Prize. Prior to pursuing graduate study in conducting, he was selected as a Gates Scholar to attend the University of Cambridge in the UK, earning an MPhil in historical musicology. He received his B.A. in music, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University.
He lives in New York City with his husband, Ian, and his dog, Tux.
