Justin Brown is Music Director Laureate of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and was Music Director of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany from 2008 to 2020. At the ASO he was known especially for his Beethoven cycles as well as for his tireless work fostering new music. For both these specialties, the Orchestra was invited to Carnegie Hall’s Spring for Music Festival in 2012. In Germany, he has been celebrated both for his mastery of the Wagner operas and for his innovative approach to programming.

In six seasons as Music Director of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Brown and the ASO received three first-place ASCAP awards in 2010, 2012, and 2013, and the John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music in 2011. His legacy also includes the institution of a composer-in-residence program as well as the founding of the Alabama Symphony Youth Orchestra.

In his twelve years as Music Director in Karlsruhe, he was recognised as “one of today’s leading Wagner conductors” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), received the German Publishers Award for innovative programming, and was nominated as Conductor of the Year (Opernwelt) as well as for an International Opera Award (for the World Premiere of Avner Dorman’s opera “Wahnfried”).

As a guest conductor, he has worked with many of the world’s top orchestras and opera houses, from the Dallas and Cincinatti Symphonies to the Tokyo Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony, and from the Deutsche Oper Berlin to the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires.

Also in demand as a pianist, Mr. Brown’s performances have been lauded on both sides of the Atlantic. He regularly directs concertos from the keyboard, including those of Mozart, Beethoven and Shostakovich, as well as participating in chamber music series and lieder recitals.

His discography includes critically acclaimed recordings of music ranging from Dvorak, Elgar and Mahler to Gershwin, Elliott Carter, Poul Ruders and John Tavener. His recording of Peter Lieberson’s The Six Realms (Bridge Records) won the WQXR Gramophone American Award and received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Recording.

His recording of the original piano version of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Claudia Huckle and Nicky Spence was released in January 2023 (Champs Hill Records), and has been acclaimed with rave reviews in London (The Observer, BBC Music Magazine) as well as Toronto (Whole Note) and Sydney (Limelight, Editor’s Choice).

Justin Brown studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and at Tanglewood, later becoming an assistant to both Leonard Bernstein and Luciano Berio. He began his career at the English National Opera, and made his conducting debut with Bernstein’s Mass at the Guildhall School.