College of Performing Arts Faculty

Profile

“Perhaps you’ve heard about a new big-band resurgence in New York. Near the center of that wave is this 18-piece ensemble led by a Midwestern-born multireedist and composer named Brian Krock.” (Nate Chinen, WBGO) Brooklyn-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Brian Krock has released four albums of original music that resist concise summation. Krock’s career is distinguished by variety, but every project he touches retains the essential core of his sound; visceral sensitivity and probing complexity are equally relevant to his work. He studied composition with Jim McNeely at the Manhattan School of Music, earning his Master’s in Jazz Composition in 2013. Since then, he has proven himself flexible enough to complete commissions for jazz big bands (The Jared Schonig Big Band, Keio Light Music Society, New York Youth Symphony), orchestras (Bang on a Can, The Metropole Orchestra), pop artists (Eric Slick, Clinton Curtis), and musical theater productions.  

Krock leads Big Heart Machine, a large ensemble whose self-titled debut album from 2018 caused a stir in the international jazz community, catapulting the band to many year-end lists. After their performance at Winter Jazz Fest in 2019, Big Heart Machine were singled out as “an innovative big band deserving notice” in The Atlantic. Additionally, The New York Time’s music critic Giovanni Russonello described the band’s aesthetic: “The suspenseful, layered music can sound like migration in motion or a wisp of twisting smoke. And if you’re looking for musical-historical references, there are plenty — from progressive metal to Carnatic music to late-20th-century Western classical.”