Elias Brown joins Maestro Arts roster

We are delighted to welcome Elias Brown to the Maestro Arts roster. Brown is a conductor, composer and curator, and currently serves as Assistant Conductor of Odense Symphony Orchestra. 

Growing up in Los Angeles, Brown studied piano, trumpet and conducting, but chose to take a Liberal Arts degree from Yale University, as he explains in our latest interview: 'I was eager to explore ways in which music intersects with visual arts, architecture and society at large – to ask broader questions that are harder to articulate within the conservatoire system.' 

During that time, he ran a new music ensemble and curated concerts that crossed different artforms. This interest continued during his subsequent studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where his Master's thesis focused on the theory and practice of concert curation. He was inspired by museums, he explains: 'Museums can put very old and very new objects in dialogue in ways that resonate with us and speak to our moment in society, to help us understand who we have been, who we are and who we’re becoming. This was very inspiring when I began to think about putting together musical programmes.'

This season Brown assists Esa-Pekka Salonen for the world premiere of Khovanshchina at the Salzburg Easter Festival, directed by Simon McBurney and performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has previously been mentored by Salonen and was a Salonen Fellow for 2023/24. He explains one of the key things he's learnt from Salonen – advice that was passed on from Pierre Boulez: 'Valuing relationships is the most important thing, and a career follows from that – not vice versa. A career is an ineffable idea, but relationships are real and tangible. Esa-Pekka has worked with the same orchestras continuously for decades, because of this emphasis on relationships and trust. Music-making has to come from believing in one another and understanding that a collaboration is bigger than any one person.’

Brown earned a Solti Foundation US Opera Residency Fellowship at Kennedy Center, assisting in Washington National Opera's production of Macbeth in 2024. He says of his experience working in opera: 'I’m inspired by how opera brings together people with different backgrounds, experiences and skill sets, to make this thing that is larger than the sum of the parts. Perhaps it’s utopian, but it’s so important that we continue to find ways of working together across different backgrounds towards a collective vision.'