Brian Shank is an American composer and percussionist. His expressive compositional style is inspired by the rich harmonic language of France’s Impressionists and later twentieth century masters. As a performer his stylistic interests are widely varied, including contemporary-classical music, jazz, electronic, and electro-acoustic music. He has appeared as a soloist at Bard’s Fisher Center and Troy Music Hall.
He has been commissioned by The Juilliard Pre-College Percussion Ensemble, the Æon Ensemble, Tom Gold Dance, CreArt Box, and in 2018 his orchestral work Into the Rose Garden was premiered by the New Jersey Symphony and conductor David Robertson. Brian holds a degree in percussion from The Juilliard School and is currently a graduate student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he lectures in music history.
A passionate educator, he was a faculty member at the Luzerne Music Center from 2015-2018 and has been a teaching artist with the Bridge Arts Ensemble, an organization that brings music to public schools exclusively in the Adirondack region, since 2015.
Brian lives in San Francisco and is originally from Saratoga, New York.