Brian Ciach

Dr. Brian Ciach
Music Theory
brian.ciach@sjsu.edu

Dr. Brian Ciach (pronounced “SIGH-ack“) is a composer, new music pianist, and educator who has lived in the Bay Area since 2015. He holds a Doctor of Music in composition from Indiana University-Bloomington, and two master’s degrees in composition and piano performance, as well as a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Temple University in Philadelphia, his home city. 

Brian has been teaching music theory and musicianship for over twenty years at eight universities across the US and is currently a Lecturer of music theory at SJSU, and the Co-Founder, Assistant Director, and Instructor of Piano, Music Theory, Composition, and Piano Improvisation at the Hunter School of Music in San Jose. Dr. Ciach teaches the entire music theory and musicianship undergraduate sequence at SJSU, and has taught counterpoint, orchestration, composition, and the graduate music theory analysis course. As a Faculty Special Consultant at SJSU, Brian (alongside Professor Langan) has created a refreshed, more inclusive music theory and musicianship curriculum, which aims to balance the works of the Classical Canon with works of student musical icons in the classroom.

The winner of two national American Prizes in Composition and winner of the international American Liszt Society Bicentennial Composition Competition, his music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and Alarm Will Sound, among many others. He has premiered his seven piano sonatas, piano variation sets, and the piano works of his students and colleagues alike in concert halls across the US, including Carnegie Hall.

Recent composition projects include a completion of Bach’s unfinished Contrapunctus XIV from Art of Fugue, which he performed in lecture recitals at SJSU, as well as 24 New Preludes and Fugues for piano. Brian’s compositions are published by Potenza Music. For more information, please visit: https://sigh-ackmusic.org/index.html