Full Biography (760 words)
Brian Dean Morales is a composer, producer, and Cantori vocalist who believes music and art thrive through collaboration. His most widespread accomplishment is the reorchestration of The Color Purple, which featured Cynthia Erivo in her debut role and was directed by John Doyle. This production earned him his first Olivier Award nomination.
Brian maintains an active practice as a composer and musician. Whether he's designing a synth in Ableton, creating an orchestral reduction of modern repertoire, composing underscores for visual and digital media, arranging popular songs for his LA art pop project Midnight Druthers, or simply buzzing away on the melodica for his child's enjoyment, he engages with music daily.
His chamber ballet Strangers—his first serious large-form work for woodwind quintet, percussion, and four dancers—was completed during the pandemic with choreographer Julia Bengtsson and premiered at Inwood Art Works in June 2024, with support from a New York State Council on the Arts grant. The album is now streaming everywhere. His collaboration with Julia has expanded across multiple projects, including Of Love, a ballet setting of his violin sonata (premiered at The United Palace in May 2024), and House of Mercy, a dynamic ensemble piece examining the harrowing history of an asylum in uptown Inwood.
Brian actively writes and produces music for film and TV. Since 2022, he has produced over 100 tracks for sync music libraries including 11One Music, Reel Note Music, Opening Line Music Group, and Deepsyncers. He is currently scoring A Westbound Story for director Zoe C Salicrup Junco. His work as conductor and orchestrator for Adam Taylor and Scott Joiner's opera films, Connection Lost: The Tinder Opera and Something Blue: The Bachelor Opera, culminated in a Best Score award at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered in 2017. He was recently a 2025 Fellow for the Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive, where he composed and conducted Come Live With Me and Be My Love with the Hollywood Recording orchestra. He participated in the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Film Scoring Workshop.
As an orchestrator and arranger, Brian has contributed to diverse projects across the musical landscape. Recent work includes orchestrating Adolphus Hailstork's Crispus Attucks for Cantori New York (March 2026) and transcribing Vittorio Rieti's 1948 ballet il Trionfo di Bacco e Arianna from Balanchine's original handwritten materials. His orchestrations for Gregory Nabours's Ovation Award-winning song cycle, The Trouble With Words, inspired Broadway World to exclaim, "Rock has never sounded so good!" He has arranged numerous works for The Las Vegas Composer's Showcase and created wind band arrangements of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Symphony in F minor and Bach's Gottes Zeit (commissioned for the LA Fires Benefit Concert).
Recent performances of his concert works include Harlem Dances for string orchestra (commissioned by Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, 2024); Threshold for chamber orchestra (Cascade Conducting Workshop); Saxophone Quartet No. 2 (Alba Music Festival, Italy, 2022); and Kyrie from his Missa Brevis, which premiered at the 2017 European American Musical Alliance Nadia Boulanger Institute in Paris.
Brian has been recognized through numerous fellowships and competitions. He was an Academic Fellow for the Alba Music Festival (2020) and the Talis Festival & Academy in Sarajevo (2019), where his oboe quartet, Visions of Sacrifice, was premiered. He won the 2018 Pittsburgh Philharmonic EQT Young Composer Contest, resulting in the premiere of Arrivals, and was selected for the 2019 Stradella Baroque Festival's NEWTRACKS series.
On the podium, Brian was founding music director of the Orange County Collegiate Orchestra, and he has appeared as guest conductor for the Novus et Antiquus Orchestra, the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, and the Amadeo Philharmonic. A participant in the 2018 New York Conductor's Workshop, he worked with the Chamber Orchestra of New York and received additional training in orchestral conducting at the Juilliard Evening Division. He served as assistant conductor for Kimo Furumoto and Cal State Fullerton's Symphony Orchestra and as conductor for the CSUF New Music Ensemble, where he was afforded the privilege to work alongside Paola Prestini, Missy Mazzoli, Conrad Pope, and Nicole Mitchell.
Brian received his M.M. in composition from the Manhattan School of Music and his B.M. from California State University, Fullerton. He attended the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA), where he realized his lifelong dream of studying counterpoint in Paris. His major teachers include Richard Danielpour, Philip Lasser (theory/composition), Pamela Madsen (composition), Lloyd Rodgers (counterpoint/orchestration), Bill Cunliffe (commercial arranging), and David Ludwig. He currently is an active chorus member for the acclaimed, award-winning Cantori di NY choir where he sings Baritone under the baton of Maestro Mark Shapiro.
Medium Biography (264 words)
Brian Dean Morales is a composer, producer, and Cantori vocalist who believes music and art thrive through collaboration. His most widespread accomplishment is the reorchestration of The Color Purple, which featured Cynthia Erivo in her debut role and was directed by John Doyle. This production earned him his first Olivier Award nomination.
Brian maintains an active practice as a composer and musician. Whether he's designing a synth in Ableton, creating an orchestral reduction of modern repertoire, composing underscores for visual and digital media, arranging popular songs for his LA art pop project Midnight Druthers, or simply buzzing away on the melodica for his child's enjoyment, he engages with music daily.
His chamber ballet Strangers—his first serious large-form work for woodwind quintet, percussion, and four dancers—was completed during the pandemic with choreographer Julia Bengtsson and the album is now streaming everywhere. His collaboration with Julia has expanded across multiple projects, including Of Love, a ballet setting of his violin sonata for three dancers that premiered at The United Palace, and House of Mercy, a dynamic ensemble piece examining the harrowing history of an asylum in uptown Inwood.
Brian actively writes and produces music for film and TV and was recently a 2025 Fellow for the Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive. He received his M.M. in composition from the Manhattan School of Music and his B.M. from California State University, Fullerton. He attended the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA), where he realized his lifelong dream of studying counterpoint in Paris. His teachers include Richard Danielpour, Philip Lasser, Pamela Madsen, Bill Cunliffe, and Lloyd Rodgers.