O Connor, Brian D. (6th December 1951-4th March 2016)

French horn player, flugelhornist, and teacher fborn Brian Dennis Adger O’Connor in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who cut his teeth with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony and went on to attend the California Institute of the Arts, from whence he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.

His career as a session musician took off in 1974, when he performed on the soundtrack of the television programme, Executive Suite. He went on to perform on The Academy Awards, The Carol Burnett Show, The Emmys, The Miss America Pageant, The People’s Choice Awards, and the soundtracks of Fantasy Island, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and Taken.

Brian was not, however, confined to the TV set. He performed on over one thousand film soundtracks, including all of the Austin Powers movies, The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral Damage, The Day after Tomorrow, Elektra, Flags of Our Fathers, The Glass House, Hairspray (2007), The Incredibles, Jurassic Park, King Kong (2005), The Lion King, Matrix Revolutions, National Treasure, Out of Africa, The Princess Diaries, The Rock, Spiderman-2, Titanic, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Village, War of the Worlds, X2: X-Men United, and Zathura.

His experience certainly did not stop on the big screen. Brian performed for a number of Broadway musicals, including Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd. He recorded with Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Harry Connick, Jr., Neil Diamond, Danny Elfman, Jose Feliciano, Dave Grusin, James Newton Howard, The Isley Brothers, Johnny Mathis, Neil Norman, Prince, Lionel Richie, Frank Sinatra, and Thomas Talbert.

On top of all of his recording work, he served as President of the Recording Musicians Association, and did turns on the Executive Board of the International and L.A. chapters of the Recording Musicians Association, and the election board of Local 47, the Los Angeles musicians union. Orchestras with which he worked include the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, the Glendale Symphony, the Hollywood Studio Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Opera Repertory Theater Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, and the Pasadena Symphony.

On 13^th December 2004, Brian underwent surgery for a low-grade, egg-sized brain tumor. It did not keep him out of commission for long: He returned to work in a little over a month.

In addition to performing, Brian also teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and served as a clinician with the Texas Bandmasters Association.

He died at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in California in 2016 after having fought brain cancer for 12 years. He was 64 years old.

Sources:

O Connor, Brian D. (6th December 1951-4th March 2016)

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