He is a cellist born in New York who started to learn the cello when he was 8 years old, He studied at the Eastman School of Music where he earned a performer’s certificate and his Bachelor of Music degree. While there he was a soloist with the Eastman Philharmonia and won the school’s concerto competition. He went on to take further studies at Indiana University where he earned his Master of Music degree. He was taught by the music teachers Paul Katz and Janos Starker.
His solo debut was when he was fourteen years old and he played with the San Antonio Symphony. From then on his career grew and he has performed with many orchestras and ensembles and participated as a teacher and musician and countless national and international music festivals. The festivals include the Arizona Musicfest, where he is the festival orchestra’s Principal Cello, Aspen Music Festival, the International Cello Institute, the Lakes Area Music Festival, Music at Gretna where he has been a concerto soloist repeatedly, Portland Chamber Music Festival, Festival der Zukunft in Switzerland, the Mimir Chamber Music Festival in Australia and the Shanghai International Music Festival in China long with many others.
He has performed with Miami’s New World Symphony, where he has been a concerto soloist and participant in mentoring and audition training seminars and been a member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
He was the cellist with the Everest Quartet from 1992 to 1997, which he toured and taught nationally and in the Caribbean with. The Quartet gave the world premiere of a composition by the composer Paul Schoenfield and were prize winners at the Fischoff Chamber Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.
After a year with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra he was appointed by David Barenboim to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1998. With the CSO he has given several recitals and radiobroadcasts and performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and in the MusicNow contemporary chamber music series.
Outside of his orchestral and chamber music work he was a associated with the band Pink Martini for seven years and appeared with them throughout North America including at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He and the band also made appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
Recordings he has performed on include John Harbison: Chamber Music with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Come On Up by Brian Culbertson, Parable: A Tale of Abraham and Isaac/Sacred Service (Excerpts) with the Everett Quartet, Christmas Celebration and Christmas Extraordinaire by Mannheim Steamroller, A Night Out With Friends by Richard Marx, Joelle Wallach: Shadow Sighs and Songs of Longing with the Pennsylvania String Quarter, Hey Eugene! and Live in London at the Roundhouse 20.05.2007 by Pink Martini and the soundtrack of Lincoln.
In the field of musical education he has been a faculty member of the DePaul University School of Music, Northwestern University’s National High School Music Institute, Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts and the University of Michigan. He serves on the board of the online resource cellobello.org.
Sources:
- https://cso.org/about/performers/cso-musicians/strings/cello/brant-taylor/
- https://music.depaul.edu/faculty-staff/faculty-a-z/Pages/brant-taylor.aspx
- https://www.cellobello.org/cello-blog/author/brant-taylor/
- https://www.chambermusicchicago.org/brant-taylor-cello
- https://finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/events/mimir/artists/brant-taylor
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/823328-Brant-Taylor?type=Credits&filter_anv=0