About

Jake Berran is a Pittsburgh-based composer, pianist, conductor, percussionist, vocalist, and educator working across contemporary classical, electronic, theater, and church music. Originally from Minnesota, he holds a B.M. in Composition and a B.A. in Mathematics from Oberlin College and Conservatory, as well as an M.M. in Composition from The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Recently, his solo piano work Seven Regressions earned an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award Honorable Mention and was uploaded by Score Follower, and his orchestra piece Probabolophony was awarded the Shepherd School's Paul and Christiane Cooper Prize. He also composed and directed electroacoustic chamber opera PHREAKED: The Boy Who Broke The Telephone with libretto by Avalon Hogans and Spencer Rembert. His music has been performed by groups such as Sandbox Percussion, Kinetic Ensemble, White Snake Projects, Unheard-of//Ensemble, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Oberlin College Choir. While at Rice, he was TA for Electronic Music, taught high school composition as MusiqaLab’s Composer in Residence, and performed with Houston's Gamelan of the New Moon. He served two seasons as Associate Conductor for the College Light Opera Company, conducting The Light In The Piazza, The Secret Garden, Frozen, Ruddigore, and La Cage aux Folles. Currently, Berran works as a staff accompanist for dance and musical theatre at Point Park University, keyboardist at Grace Presbyterian Church, and piano instructor at Dynamic Music Studio.

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