About

Aiyana Braun (She/Her) is a composer and sound artist described by PBS as "groundbreaking" and "explosive yet also meditative." Her work explores the dynamic interplay between groove-oriented and ametric material, reflecting a deep fascination with sonic phenomena and the field of psychoacoustics, frequently embracing the roles of community and performer agency in shaping musical outcomes.  

Her music has been performed across the US and internationally by ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and has been featured on NPR's From the Top, PBS's On Stage at Curtis, and I Care if You Listen.TV. She has received honors from the ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, American Composers Forum, Copland House, and NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts. Her primary mentors include Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, Pulitzer Prize finalist and Grammy-winning composer Ted Hearne, and David Serkin Ludwig, Dean and Director of Music at The Juilliard School.

At age eleven, Aiyana was commissioned by Norman Lear ("All in the Family," "The Jeffersons”) and Maya Angelou to perform an original composition at the Marian Anderson Awards, after which Maya Angelou expressed that Aiyana's music "touched me deeply." The ceremony also featured performances by Broadway veteran Ben Vereen, Grammy Award winner Harry Belafonte, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Shortly after, she was commissioned at the age of fifteen to write her first orchestral work for the New York Philharmonic.

She has since worked with orchestras including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a workshop led by John Adams, Berkeley Symphony (as part of a two-year residency mentored by Anna Clyne and made possible through the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA's Music Alive program), Orkest de Ereprijs (Netherlands), San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra VOX (in Residence at Oxford University), and has collaborated with world-renowned artists including Danny Matsukawa, Principal Bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra; Eric Bartlett, Cellist at the New York Philharmonic; Jon Deak, Associate Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic; Andrea Obiso, Concertmaster of Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; and Sarah Foster-Sproull, Choreographer-in-Residence of the Royal New Zealand Ballet; as well as musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra (Italy), Buffalo Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Minnesota Opera Orchestra, and others.

Aiyana is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (B.M., Full Scholarship) and The Juilliard School's Pre-College Division, where she studied on full scholarship for four years, during which time she taught composition at the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers Program alongside Pulitzer Finalist Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Angélica Negrón. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California (M.M., Full Scholarship) where she studied composition with Pulitzer finalist and Grammy-winning composer Ted Hearne, psychoacoustics with Rome Prize winner and Guggenheim Fellow Nina Young, and music production with Jae Deal (credits include Charli XCX (Brat Album), Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, and Wynton Marsalis among others). She has participated in lessons or masterclasses with Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, Unsuk Chin, Chen Yi, Libby Larsen, Caroline Shaw, Derek Bermel, Christopher Theofanidis, Anna Clyne, Stephen Stucky, Ian Krouse, Augusta Read Thomas, and others.

Aiyana frequently collaborates with choreographers, dancers, and visual artists, and is particularly passionate about working with dance as both of her parents were professional dancers and choreographers (click to view her parents’ website). She was commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music to write a short ballet, was featured in the Sundance Selects film First Position, and was an International Fellow in Residence at NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts from 2020-21, where she collaborated with artists and dancers from around the world.

She is an Adjunct Professor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where she designs and teaches graduate theory and music perception courses, including Psychoacoustics and Analysis of Seminal Works of the Last 15 Years, including works commissioned and recorded by Grammy-winning conductor Donald Nally and The Crossing. At Westminster Choir College she also teaches all levels of undergraduate Musicianship (a consolidation of music theory, ear training, and keyboard studies) 20th and 21st Century Composition Techniques / Post Tonal Theory, Songwriting, and Music & Society. She is an Adjunct Professor at Raritan Valley Community College, where she teaches Audio Production, a course she designed covering recording, miking, and editing techniques, MIDI, DAWs, notation software, and file management for composition, songwriting, and multimedia. Previously, she was a Lecturer at California State University, Fullerton, where she taught courses she designed in music theory, ear training, 20th and 21st century composition techniques, orchestration, and gave private lessons to graduate composition majors.

[Full Press Kit] [Resume]