Elias Peter Brown works as a conductor, composer, improviser, and curator, seeking to create meaningful spaces for listening in and out of the concert hall.
This season, he serves as a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at Colburn Conservatory and the San Francisco Symphony, where he will assist Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally, including engagements with Orchestre de Paris, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Colburn Orchestra, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. He leads members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat and conducts a concert of contemporary works with the Zafraan and New Babylon Ensembles on tour, outreach concerts with the Zipper Orchestra, and a performance of concertos with the Colburn Orchestra.
Brown was previously assistant conductor of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra in Seoul during the 2022–23 season, a role he assumed after winning First Prize and the Orchestra Prize at the Korean International Conducting Competition in 2021. Additionally, he has worked with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Flemish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Kammerorchester Basel, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, Thüringen Symphony, Brandenburg State Orchestra, Gyeonggi Philharmonic, North Czech Philharmonic, and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. His deep love for new music has brought forth collaborations with ensembles and collectives across Europe, including Ensemble MusikFabrik, Ensemble Zafraan, New Babylon Ensemble, Spectra Ensemble, and Divertimento Ensemble, and he recently served as assistant conductor at the Acht Brücken Festival with the European Workshop for Contemporary Music.
Also a dedicated educator, Brown previously served as a teaching artist with the London Philharmonic, and he recently worked as a guest conductor with the Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Ghent. He has led workshops in creative and attentive listening at Berlin’s Floating University and in artist residencies in France, Japan, and in the Republic of Georgia. Beyond his role as conductor, he has been mentored as a music curator through the Sounds Now program at Onassis Stegi, and his work as composer has been performed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Krama Festival in Athens, and the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Based in Los Angeles and Berlin, Brown graduated with honors from Yale University and the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Sian Edwards. He also completed a Professional Diploma in Orchestral Conducting at University of the Arts, Berlin. He has participated in masterclasses with David Zinman, Johannes Schlaefli, Kristiina Poska, Mark Stringer, Marin Alsop, Robert Treviño, and Larry Rachleff, and he was chosen as a participant for The Critical Orchestra at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in 2022. Brown is currently a scholarship holder of the Conducting Forum of the German Music Council and was the recipient of a 2023 Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award.
He is represented by Colburn Artists.
