About

BRIAN MCDONAGH

FOUNDER & EDITOR IN CHIEF
PLANGERE

Brian McDonagh began musical studies at the age of fifteen. Two years later he made his orchestral debut in Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. He studied in Vienna (Andras Schiff), New York (Garrick Ohlssohn) and in Toronto with Marietta Orlov as well as composition with Samuel Adler at the Juilliard School, New York. He has performed internationally with orchestra, as soloist and as a collaborator in Art-Song performances with some of Canada’s finest singers. As a composer his works have been recorded and broadcast in sixteen countries and have twice received the top prize in international composition competitions. He holds post graduate degrees in both piano Performance and Composition.

Mr. McDonagh has performed throughout Canada, Europe and the United States. He was a semi-finalist in both the Busoni International Piano Competition and the Beethoven International Competition held in Vienna. In 1997 he released his first solo recording titled ‘Seminal’ featuring works of Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Chopin and Bartok. In 1998 he performed a sixteen concert solo tour of South America on behalf of OXFAM International in support of women’s suffrage on that continent.

Since 1995 he has been a member of the Piano department of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto teaching Canada’s next generation of pianists as well as teaching comprehensive survey courses in piano literature, senior pedagogy and graduate courses in music literature.

He is the Editor-In-Chief and Founder of PLANGERE; a music publishing house specializing in repertoire for the Piano and music for Voice and Piano.

“I consider him an outstanding young composer who has already established himself as a leading creator of his generation.” Samuel Adler – The Juilliard School Author – The Study of Orchestration