Biography
Golden Globe nominated composer Brian Byrne moved to Los Angeles from Ireland in July 2003 to expand his career as a film and television composer. Since then, Brian has consistently worked as a composer, conductor, songwriter, arranger and pianist - in the US and in Europe. Brian recently won two World Soundtrack Awards for his music to the song and score for the movie ALBERT NOBBS. From huge orchestral scores to minimal ensemble compositions, Brian has written music for films in many genres. He won the Irish Film and Television Award for his original score for the Irish Sci-Fi comedy ZONAD, directed by John Carney. He then scored an indie drama called THE GOOD DOCTOR, starring Orlando Bloom and has just finished the score to Oscar hopeful ALBERT NOBBS starring Glenn Close. Brian's previous film work includes conducting and arranging the scores to Jim Sheridan's Oscar-nominated IN AMERICA and Kristen Sheridan's drama, DISCO PIGS. Brian has collaborated with such international luminaries as Katy Perry, Bono, Barbra Streisand, Lisa Stansfield, Van Morrison, The Corrs, Sinead O'Connor, Alan Bergman, Ronan Tynan, Luis Miguel, Vince Gill, Gladys Knight, to name a few. He toured with Diane Warren, arranged a song for Sex and the City 2 and played piano on Liza Minnelli's cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)." Byrne's varied musical credits also include a score for a short film directed by Eric Stoltz and the theme music to the "Late Late Show". Brian's American conducting debut came in 2004 at Carnegie Hall. He was commission to write all the arrangements and conduct the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the release of Ronan Tynan's first solo album. He continued on as Musical Director for Ronan's Tour and subsequently wrote two original compositions for the album. Ellie and Passing Through As musical Director for the BBC Beautiful Night concert, he conducted the Ulster Orchestra with artists Jamie Cullum, Bob Geldof, Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy), Hot House Flowers, Ronan Keating (Boyzone), Brian Kennedy and Alanis Morissette, performing for 10 million people during a live telecast throughout Ireland, the U.K. and Europe. Brian was educated at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He graduated in 1997 with first-class honors in music and was awarded The Peter Knox Memorial Award for overall performance. Later that year he received the Outstanding Musicianship Award from Berklee College's touring faculty in Scotland as well as winning the PRS Sir Arthur Bliss Prize Scholarship for composition that enabled him to study film composition at London's Royal College of Music. In 2008, Brian added ASCAP's Film and Television Scoring Workshop's Steve Kaplan Scholarship to his already long list of accomplishments and awards. Most recently Brian has been commissioned to write the music to the new Riverdance sequel, HEARTBEAT OF HOME and he had the honor of writing a fanfare for Her Majesty the Queen's state visit to Ireland.
