Musical Director – Brian KM

In July 2024 the MRB appointed Brian KM to the role of Musical Director.

Brian KM musical creator, collaborator, storyteller, and innovator. His explorations as a French horn and live electronics soloist, chamber musician, educator, and conductor have put him in front of audiences from Boston to Florida, Alaska to Hawaiʻi, Australia to Timor Leste, and more.

Brian KM developed a taste for new music early in his career, performing with the EDGE New Music Ensemble at Shenandoah Conservatory during his early training. Since then, he has commissioned multiple new works for solo horn and various chamber groups and has participated in the world premiere of many works for orchestra and band.

After his collegiate training, Brian KM was appointed as the Principal Horn of the United States Navy’s “U.S. Pacific Fleet Band” in Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi. While serving in the Navy, he was a featured soloist and regular horn player for the organisation’s premiere brass quintet, “Harbor Brass” and wind quintet, “Trade Winds”. During his service in the United States Navy, Brian completed multiple international and domestic tours, providing musical support for hundreds of diplomatic, military, and outreach events. He participated in the Oʻahu Joint Military Service Band Concert in 2019, serving as principal horn for military members in the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Army, and National Guard. In 2018, he was selected to perform at the Midwest Band Conference as a member of a Navy-wide chamber ensemble. He received the National Medal of Arts “for personifying excellence in music and service to country”.

His work as a composer for his horn and electronics work has been hailed as “the most original show” audiences have ever seen. The International Horn Society declared, “Brian KM has created a moving narrative in music.” He has been featured at five FRINGE events around the world, most recently receiving a nomination for best music at the 2024 Melbourne FRINGE Festival. He won the Boston New Music Initiative’s Prismatic Congruency Audience Favourite award and has been a featured soloist worldwide for conservatories, Universities, and performing arts venues

In every step of his career, Brian KM has remained committed to values beyond musical output. A fierce advocate for musical outreach in educational settings, he contributed hundreds of hours of volunteer teaching for local high schools during his military service. He served as the head of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band’s Music Education Outreach Program and was the initiating agent for many key programs, including multiple joint programs with the University of Hawaiʻi Department of Music and the Navy’s first online outreach program during COVID-19. During his service in the Navy, he was a Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program Victim’s Advocate, supporting sexual assault victims in the service and participating in investigations and policy discussions within the music program and beyond. 

Brian received his undergraduate degree in Music Therapy along with a performance certificate from Shenandoah Conservatory and his Master’s Degree in Horn Performance from the University of Maryland. His principal teachers have been Janelle Ellis, William Zsembery, Joseph Lovinsky, and Gregory Miller.