Brian Coughlin
bass

Brian Coughlin has won acclaim throughout the United States as an ensemble director, a versatile double- and electric bassist, and as a genre-defying composer. Prior to founding Fireworks, he served as music director of the Hartt Sinfonietta, the Black Sheep Ensemble, and the Noise Factory new music group. Brian has performed hundreds of concerts throughout the United States in venues ranging from venerable classical music institutions such as the Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, to prominent jazz venues such as the Saratoga Jazz Festival, to major rock clubs such as Toad’s Place in New Haven. He has performed as a soloist with the Berkshire Symphony, and has premiered over fifty new works written for him.


Praised by NPR as having a “gift for melody,” Brian has written music for ensembles such as The Eugene Opera, The Berkshire Symphony, Basso Bongo, Oboist Humbert Lucarelli, Cygnus, The Pacific Rim Gamelan, Non-Sequitur, The Island Breeze Steel Drum Band, and the rock band Oneida. Brian holds both a Master of Music degree in Composition from the University of Oregon and a Master of Music degree in Double Bass Performance from the Hartt School. His teachers include Robert Black and Milt Hinton (bass), and David del Tredici, Robert Kyr, and George Tsontakis (composition).