About

Jake Berran is a Pittsburgh-based composer, pianist, conductor, percussionist, vocalist, and educator active in contemporary classical, electronic, theater, and church music. Most recently, his piano solo Seven Regressions earned an Honorable Mention in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards as well as selection for publishing by Score Follower, and he composed and directed electroacoustic chamber opera PHREAKED: The Boy Who Broke The Telephone with libretto by Avalon Hogans and Spencer Rembert. He is currently a staff accompanist for dance and theater at Point Park University, keyboardist for Grace Presbyterian Church, piano teacher at Dynamic Music Co., and member of Pittsburgh Concert Chorale. For two summers, Berran served as Associate Conductor at the College Light Opera Company where he conducted The Light In The Piazza, The Secret Garden, Frozen, Ruddigore and La Cage aux Folles. Previously, Berran was Electronic Music Teaching Assistant at the Shepherd School of Music, Liturgical Music Scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, Composer In Residence for MusiqaLab teaching composition to a class of high school students, and member of Houston's Gamelan of the New Moon. His music has been performed by groups such as Sandbox Percussion, Kinetic Ensemble, White Snake Projects, Unheard-of//Ensemble, the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Oberlin College Choir, and Minnesota Sinfonia. Berran grew up in Minnesota, graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music with a B.M. in Composition and a B.A. in Mathematics, and holds an M.M. in Composition from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

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