Brett Dean
For the Musikdorf Ernen, Brett Dean writes a new work for French Horn and String Quartet.
The following works by Brett Dean are performed at the Festival Musikdorf Ernen:
Saturday, 17 October 2026, 8pm | with Students from the HEMU Valais-Wallis
String Quartet No. 4 «A Little Book of Prayers» (2024/25)
Sunday, 18 October 2026, 2pm | Vivien Heinzmann, piano
«Tallying» from the Music for Drakenstein (2018)
Hommage à Brahms (2014)
More Concerts with works by Brett Dean will take place in the 54th concert season 2027.
Biography
Brett Dean was born and studied in Australia before moving to Germany. He was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years, during which time he began composing. His music is championed by many of the leading conductors and orchestras worldwide, including Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop and Sakari Oramo. Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political, environmental or visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by artwork by his wife Heather Betts.
Dean began composing in 1988, initially concentrating on experimental film and radio projects and as an improvising performer. Dean’s reputation as a composer continued to develop, and it was through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel's Music (1995) and Carlo (1997) inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo, that he gained international recognition. Dean won the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, and was awarded the 2016 Don Banks Music Award by Australia Council, acknowledging his sustained and significant contribution to Australia’s musical scene.
In 2017 his second opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne Festival Opera to great acclaim, and has since been performed at the Cologne Opera, Adelaide Festival, The Met, the Bayerische Staatsoper and Opera Australia, winning the 2018 South Bank Sky Arts Awards and International Opera Awards for Best New Opera. In 2022 Dean was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Chamber Ensemble Composition for Madame ma Bonne Sœur; and in 2023 he won the Ivor Novello Award for Orchestral Composition for his Cello Concerto. Other major works by Dean include a Piano Concerto for Jonathan Biss and a Trumpet Concerto for Håkan Hardenberger.
Dean was Composer in Residence of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019-2023, and at the Wigmore Hall for the 2023/24 season. In 2024, Dean was appointed Visiting Professor of the Composition and Contemporary Music Department at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2025, the String Quartet No.4 («A Little Book of Prayers»), composed for the Belcea Quartet in memory of its former second violinist Laura Samuel, had its world premiere at Carnegie Hall, New York.
Dean enjoys a prolific performing career as a violist and conductor, playing his own Viola Concerto with many of the world’s leading orchestras. He is a natural chamber musician, frequently collaborating with other soloists and ensembles including the Doric Quartet, Scharoun Ensemble, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian National Academy of Music.
Dean’s imaginative conducting programmes usually centre around his own works combined with those by other composers. Past performing highlights include the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra BBC Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie.
Dean’s music has been recorded for BIS, Chandos, Warner Classics, ECM Records and ABC Classics. Highlights include a BIS release in 2016 of works including Shadow Music, Testament, Short Stories and Etudenfest, performed by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Dean. His Viola Concerto has also been released on BIS with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The DVD of Hamlet was released by Glyndebourne in June 2018 and won a Gramophone Award in 2019.
