Brendan works in a variety of styles, having an equal amount of experience in the classical world as he does in popular genres.

Having been raised as a trumpet player, Brendan taught himself guitar at the age of 13 (and shortly thereafter, drums and piano), at which point he started writing songs and recording his own music. But Brendan’s first serious delve into composition came during his time at Manhattanville College, where, as a music major, he came under the tutelage of Dr. Mary Ann Joyce, a daring and accomplished composer who not only taught him his first lessons in composition, orchestration, and counterpoint, but also instilled in him a great love of literature and interest in the creative process.

After graduating with a BFA in music performance (trumpet and piano) in 2008, Brendan studied composition with veteran film composer and producer John Lissauer. John’s all-encompassing approach to music — the composer freely mixing genres and using whatever tools he has at his fingertips to do it — would have a great influence on Brendan, who was already a multi-instrumentalist with experience in classical, jazz, and popular music.

At the same time that Brendan was immersed in the scores of Stravinsky and Ravel, he was also playing lead guitar and writing songs for Ten Feet Deep, a pop-rock group that served as an opening act for a plethora of artists including Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne, Rusted Root, Gin Blossoms, Dicky Betts, and others. His early works include about 50+ songs, a Woodwind Quintet, a Brass Quintet, a Fantasy for Strings, as well as several works for solo piano.

In 2009, Brendan scored his first film, The Best Laid Plans. Through this project he met the actor and director Alden Ford, kicking off a decades-long collaboration that continues to this day.

Brendan’s 2015 score to Hamlet: Son of a Kingpin illustrated the ease with which he can adopt and mesh varying styles into something new and different. The score combined elements of Latin music, electronica, and classical to create an intimate and disturbing atmosphere that artfully conveyed what was happening onscreen.

In 2016, Brendan was asked to provide music for an off-the-wall improvised science-fiction podcast performed by members of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre. The project, Mission to Zyxx, called for an epic orchestral score based on the work of John Williams, Gustav Holst, and others. After providing sample-based orchestral mock-ups for the first two seasons, the producers of the show decided to commission a live orchestra to record the music for the third season — a move that would have been considered extreme for any other podcast. But for Zyxx — with its extraordinary sound design and production quality — a live orchestra was the next logical step. This began Brendan’s working relationship with the FAMES Orchestra, who has recorded the music for seasons 3, 4, and 5.