Brian Shank is a composer, percussionist, and musicologist. He writes music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and dance blending American rhythms and characteristics with French Impressionist harmonies. His music has been performed by ensembles across the United States and Europe such as the Rome Opera Choir, and many others. Brian’s music is part of the permanent collection at the Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo in Rome and he won the prestigious Cone Composition Institute in 2018. As a percussionist, Shank specializes in performing electroacoustic works. A member of the Caroga Arts Collective since 2018, he helps facilitate the orchestra’s collaborations with visiting artists as an arranger and versatile percussionist. Brian was a teaching artist with the Bridge Arts Ensemble and performed for 50,000 students annually in the Adirondacks (NY) for many years. Thoroughly schooled in the French harmonic and contrapuntal tradition of Nadia Boulanger, his teachers include Philip Lasser, David Conte, Daniel Druckman, Gordon Gottlieb, and Richard Albagli. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (B.M. Percussion) and San Francisco Conservatory (M.M. Composition), and is completing a PhD in History and Theory of Music at UC Irvine where he engages in curriculum development, teaching, and human-centered applications of artificial intelligence.