“that modern rarity, a convincing 21st-century symphonist with a powerful stylistic voice and some urgent substance to communicate.” Jessica Duchen BBC Music Magazine 2020 https://www.elisabettabrusa.it/wp-admin/post.php?post=1210&action=edit
“A brilliant Anglo/Italian composer with a meticulous sense of orchestral colour and appealingly harmonic novelty and lyric gifts”, Elisabetta Brusa is a pioneer of a growing number of modern composers who have elected to write Classical music in a tonal style that communicates with the public, while avoiding some of the clichés that so often lie in wait. Her idiom is always fresh and her music covers a wide range of expressions”. 2022 https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Elisabetta_Brusa/19559
When so much “new” music is merely a collection of scrapes and blasts or a series of computer-generated shrieks and blips, it is a completely refreshing surprise to come across a composer who can write for an orchestra with an original voice that is worth hearing. Such a voice is that of Italian-born Elisabetta Brusa. Educated in Milan, London and the United States Ms. Brusa is an inspired composer who has found some interesting things to say through the medium of the traditional orchestra.http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Nov02/Brusa1.htm
“Brusa’s music is completely modern, but also accessible, interesting, entertaining and enjoyable. It’s the kind of music that makes you want more…” https://www.elisabettabrusa.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Brusa_-Orchestral-Works-Vol.-1_-Amazon.com_.pdf
Born in Milan, Italy, in 1954 and naturalised British in February 2018, Elisabetta started composing at the very young age of 5 and created over 30 piano pieces before starting Composition studies with Bruno Bettinelli and Azio Corghi at the Music Conservatory in Milan, graduating in 1980. She travels to the UK yearly since her birth and from 1976 to 1985 she was mentored by Hans Keller in London. Among the numerous awards she obtained are the 1st prize of “The Washington International Competition for Composition for String Quartet” in 1982, and the “Fromm Foundation Fellowship” and a “Fulbright scholarship” in 1983, which allowed her to attend Composition courses at the Tanglewood Music Center (US). From 1988 to 1990, she was awarded Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony (US) for artistic residencies to work on her first “Symphony” for large orchestra and other works. She has had numerous commissions and her compositions have been performed in various cities in Great Britain, Italy, the United States, Germany, Russia, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Ukraine, and Hungary with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, St. Petersburg Camerata State Hermitage Orchestra, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, National Academy Orchestra of Canada, Gera-Altenburg Philharmonisches, Aachener Kammerorchester, amongst others. Elisabetta Brusa was a full-time member of the faculty at the G. Verdi Music Conservatory in Milan, where she taught Composition and Orchestration from 1985 to 2018. Previously, she had taught at the conservatories of Vicenza, Mantova and Brescia. Her works can also be heard on Youtube and Spotify. Elisabetta Brusa is married to the conductor Gilberto Serembe.