Sean Bradley
Encyclopedia
Sean Bradley is an American
conductor
, composer
, violin
ist, music theorist
, educator, and impresario
(producer) of large scale symphonic and operatic events. Bradley is the director of City Opera, a Los Angeles performing arts organization dedicated to the presentation of contemporary classical
, crossover
, and world music
, and founder of Bravoflix, the first online performing arts venue of its kind in the U.S.
. Bradley helped to establish this collective as a notable geographic and aesthetic school of contemporary composition.
Bradley founded City Opera in 2004. His first leadership initiative was the establishment of an extensive education and outreach program. Under his guidance, City Opera won a significant contract authorizing the company to deliver music education services to schools throughout the entire Los Angeles Unified School District
, immediately placing the professional scope of the company's community outreach within an important education network that includes other leading Los Angeles cultural institutions, such as the Los Angeles Music Center
, Los Angeles Philharmonic
, Los Angeles Opera
, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
. Bradley's unique vision for City Opera as a cooperative social enterprise
enabled the company to earn unrestricted revenue and to operate without philanthropy. Atypical of most opera companies, the company presents artists from all genres, and specializes in the use of performing arts in support of major touring and recording artists, as well as the use of classical talent in corporate entertainment and engagement marketing
. In 2011, Bradley founded Bravoflix, an online venue dedicated to live streaming and on-demand performances of music, dance, and theater.
—the composer of the hit musical Wicked
—with TheaterWorks in the San Francisco Bay area, and was the featured violinist in a West Coast premiere for Musical Theater West in Long Beach. He has served as concertmaster for several regional orchestras including the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, Torrance Symphony, Opera a la Carte, Opera Nova, the Culver City Chamber Orchestra, the Disney-Grammy Collegiate Orchestra, the Eastman Opera and Studio Orchestras, and has also served as assistant concertmaster for the Orquesta de Baja California
, and the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He has served as principal second violin for the Golden State Pops Orchestra, Ventura Music Festival, Asian-American Philharmonic, Saint Matthews Chamber Orchestra, and El Paso Opera, and performed as a substitute first violin for West Bay Opera. He performs regularly with the symphonies and philharmonic orchestras of West L.A., Southeast L.A., Marina Del Rey, Brentwood, Burbank, Calabasas, Antelope Valley, San Bernardino, Redlands, and Riverside and has performed with the Mozart Chamber Orchestra, Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Henry Mancini
Institute Orchestra, the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra, and others. In 2007 and 2011, he toured the entire eastern of coast China with the Mantovani Orchestra. In 2005, Bradley toured with the Orquestra de Baja California and world famous guitarist Angel Romero
to Lincoln Center in New York, and, in 2004, he visited nearly all of the contiguous United States during two separate orchestral tours. As an orchestral musician, Bradley has played under the batons of such musical luminaries as Elmer Bernstein
, Christoph von Dohnányi
, Jerry Goldsmith
, Quincy Jones
, Michael Kamen
, Lalo Schifrin
, Gunther Schuller
, Yuri Temirkanov
, Michael Tilson Thomas
, and John Williams
. In addition, he has played in concerts featuring solo artists like Stevie Wonder
, Tony Bennett
, Marco Antonio Solís
, Diana Krall
, Josh Groban
, Rita Coolidge
, Arturo Sandoval
, Christian McBride
, Alex Acuña
, Pinchas Zukerman
, and other leading classical, pop, and jazz musicians. Bradley has performed in every major venue in Los Angeles from Disney Hall to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
to The Playboy Mansion
, and has made brief appearances playing the violin in the films Ray (with Jamie Foxx
), Hannibal (with Anthony Hopkins
), and Monster-in-Law (with Jennifer Lopez
and Jane Fonda
).
Bradley also continues to work regularly and directly with students attending a wide variety of public, private, and charter schools, including inner-city schools, throughout Los Angeles. He is a former artist-faculty member of the Orange County High School of the Arts
where he taught advanced placement (collegiate) music theory
, a strings masterclass, and computer music notation. For several years, he also served as a middle school band and orchestra teacher and as a continuation high school
teacher for "at risk" students within the Glendale Unified School District
. He presently serves as the Production and Music Education
Manager for The Da Camera Society at Mount St. Mary's College
, and on the steering committee for the Los Angeles Arts Consortium.
where he studied violin with Ilya Kaler
, and composition with Christopher Rouse and Allan Schindler. He studied conducting with John Farrer and briefly with Jorge Mester
. Other teachers included Aurelio de la Vega and Abram Shtern. He lived for sometime in the studio of famed Dutch painter, Jan H. Hoowij, mentored there by the artist's widow, Pem Hoowij—a protégé of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
.
Bradley is a former US Army Ranger (Special Operations) and member of The Old Guard
(Presidential Escort), and served in Kuwait and Iraq in 1994 during Operation Vigilant Warrior
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, music theorist
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, educator, and impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
(producer) of large scale symphonic and operatic events. Bradley is the director of City Opera, a Los Angeles performing arts organization dedicated to the presentation of contemporary classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, crossover
Crossover (music)
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...
, and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, and founder of Bravoflix, the first online performing arts venue of its kind in the U.S.
A presenter of new music
Bradley first gained a reputation as a conductor and active proponent of new music while serving as the artistic director of Opera Nova Santa Monica (Gail Gordon, founding executive director). His tenure at Opera Nova was closely associated with a group of five Spanish-speaking composers living and working in Los Angeles known as Los CincoLos Cinco
Los Cinco is an unofficial collective of Latin American composers living and working in Los Angeles. These composers include: Daniel Catán, Miguel del Águila, Aurelio de la Vega, Enrique González-Medina, and Carlos Rodríquez....
. Bradley helped to establish this collective as a notable geographic and aesthetic school of contemporary composition.
Bradley founded City Opera in 2004. His first leadership initiative was the establishment of an extensive education and outreach program. Under his guidance, City Opera won a significant contract authorizing the company to deliver music education services to schools throughout the entire Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles Unified School District
Los Angeles Unified School District is the largest public school system in California. It is the 2nd largest public school district in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population...
, immediately placing the professional scope of the company's community outreach within an important education network that includes other leading Los Angeles cultural institutions, such as the Los Angeles Music Center
Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is a 40-member American chamber orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, considered by music critic Jim Svejda as "America's finest chamber orchestra".-History:...
. Bradley's unique vision for City Opera as a cooperative social enterprise
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
enabled the company to earn unrestricted revenue and to operate without philanthropy. Atypical of most opera companies, the company presents artists from all genres, and specializes in the use of performing arts in support of major touring and recording artists, as well as the use of classical talent in corporate entertainment and engagement marketing
Engagement marketing
Engagement marketing, sometimes called "experiential marketing," "event marketing", "live marketing" or "participation marketing," is a marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and invites and encourages consumers to participate in the evolution of a brand...
. In 2011, Bradley founded Bravoflix, an online venue dedicated to live streaming and on-demand performances of music, dance, and theater.
Other work
In addition to his duties as a conductor and company director, Bradley's work as a principal and section violin player includes a busy schedule of activity among many orchestras in Southern California and elsewhere. As a soloist, he has premiered original music for the stage by Stephen SchwartzStephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
—the composer of the hit musical Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
—with TheaterWorks in the San Francisco Bay area, and was the featured violinist in a West Coast premiere for Musical Theater West in Long Beach. He has served as concertmaster for several regional orchestras including the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, Torrance Symphony, Opera a la Carte, Opera Nova, the Culver City Chamber Orchestra, the Disney-Grammy Collegiate Orchestra, the Eastman Opera and Studio Orchestras, and has also served as assistant concertmaster for the Orquesta de Baja California
Orquesta de Baja California
Orquesta de Baja California is an orchestra based in the Mexican state of Baja California.The ensemble is a chamber orchestra of variable size, composed of about 17 to 40 musicians, and conducted by Maestro Angel Romero and Armando Pesquiera...
, and the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He has served as principal second violin for the Golden State Pops Orchestra, Ventura Music Festival, Asian-American Philharmonic, Saint Matthews Chamber Orchestra, and El Paso Opera, and performed as a substitute first violin for West Bay Opera. He performs regularly with the symphonies and philharmonic orchestras of West L.A., Southeast L.A., Marina Del Rey, Brentwood, Burbank, Calabasas, Antelope Valley, San Bernardino, Redlands, and Riverside and has performed with the Mozart Chamber Orchestra, Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
Institute Orchestra, the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra, and others. In 2007 and 2011, he toured the entire eastern of coast China with the Mantovani Orchestra. In 2005, Bradley toured with the Orquestra de Baja California and world famous guitarist Angel Romero
Ángel Romero
Ángel Romero is a Spanish classical guitarist, conductor and former member of the guitar quartet Los Romeros. He is the youngest son of Celedonio Romero, who in 1957 left Franco's Spain for the United States with his family....
to Lincoln Center in New York, and, in 2004, he visited nearly all of the contiguous United States during two separate orchestral tours. As an orchestral musician, Bradley has played under the batons of such musical luminaries as Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
, Christoph von Dohnányi
Christoph von Dohnányi
Christoph von Dohnányi is a German conductor of Hungarian ancestry.- Youth and World War II :Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to jurist Hans von Dohnányi and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist...
, Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Michael Kamen
Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen was an American composer , orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, song writer, and session musician.-Background:...
, Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
, Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
, Yuri Temirkanov
Yuri Temirkanov
Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov is a Russian conductor of Circassian origin.Yuri Temirkanov has been the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic since 1988.-Early life:...
, Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
, and John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
. In addition, he has played in concerts featuring solo artists like Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Marco Antonio Solís
Marco Antonio Solís
Marco Antonio Solís is a Mexican musician, composer, and record producer. Throughout his career, he has sold over 80 million records and written over 300 songs, arguably making him one of the most successful singer-songwriters in Latin America.-Early life and career:Marco Antonio Solís started his...
, Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
, Josh Groban
Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...
, Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...
, Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval is a jazz trumpeter and pianist. He was born in Artemisa, in the newest renamed Artemisa Province, Cuba....
, Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
, Alex Acuña
Alex Acuña
Alejandro Neciosup Acuña aka Alex Acuña is a Peruvian drummer and percussionist, in the Afro-Cuban jazz style.Born in Pativilca, Peru, Acuña played in local bands from the age of ten, and moved to Lima as a teenager. At the age of eighteen he joined the band of Perez Prado, and in 1967 he moved...
, Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...
, and other leading classical, pop, and jazz musicians. Bradley has performed in every major venue in Los Angeles from Disney Hall to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, also called "COLA" and the Los Angeles Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, United States...
to The Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
, and has made brief appearances playing the violin in the films Ray (with Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
), Hannibal (with Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
), and Monster-in-Law (with Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
).
Bradley also continues to work regularly and directly with students attending a wide variety of public, private, and charter schools, including inner-city schools, throughout Los Angeles. He is a former artist-faculty member of the Orange County High School of the Arts
Orange County High School of the Arts
Orange County High School of the Arts , colloquially called "OH-sha", is a 7th–12th grade public charter school located in downtown Santa Ana, Orange County, California. The school caters to middle and high school students with talents in the performing, visual and literary arts...
where he taught advanced placement (collegiate) music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, a strings masterclass, and computer music notation. For several years, he also served as a middle school band and orchestra teacher and as a continuation high school
Continuation high school
A continuation high school is an alternative to a comprehensive high school primarily for students who are considered at-risk of not graduating at the normal pace. The requirements to graduate are the same but the scheduling is more flexible to allow students to earn their credits at a quicker...
teacher for "at risk" students within the Glendale Unified School District
Glendale Unified School District
The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States.The school district serves the city of Glendale, portions of the city of La Cañada and the unincorporated communities of Montrose and La Crescenta...
. He presently serves as the Production and Music Education
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
Manager for The Da Camera Society at Mount St. Mary's College
Mount St. Mary's College
Mount St. Mary's College is a private, independent, Catholic liberal arts college, primarily for women, in Los Angeles, California. The college was founded in 1925 by the Sisters of St...
, and on the steering committee for the Los Angeles Arts Consortium.
Education and training
Bradley is a graduate of the Eastman School of MusicEastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
where he studied violin with Ilya Kaler
Ilya Kaler
Ilya Kaler is a Russian violinist. He was born in Moscow.Kaler is the only violinist to win Gold Medals at these three highly prestigious competitions: the International Tchaikovsky Competition ; the Sibelius ; and the Paganini .- Education :Born into a family of an orchestral musician, Ilya Kaler...
, and composition with Christopher Rouse and Allan Schindler. He studied conducting with John Farrer and briefly with Jorge Mester
Jorge Mester
Jorge Mester is a Mexican conductor of Hungarian ancestry.-Biography:He studied conducting with Jean Morel at the Juilliard School in New York, and worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Berkshire Music Center and with Albert Wolff...
. Other teachers included Aurelio de la Vega and Abram Shtern. He lived for sometime in the studio of famed Dutch painter, Jan H. Hoowij, mentored there by the artist's widow, Pem Hoowij—a protégé of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze
Émile Jaques-Dalcroze , was a Swiss composer, musician and music educator who developed eurhythmics, a method of learning and experiencing music through movement...
.
Bradley is a former US Army Ranger (Special Operations) and member of The Old Guard
The Old Guard
The Old Guard was an American magazine published from 1863 to 1867 by Chauncey Burr in New York City. Burr was a staunch enemy of the American Civil War as well as a defender of slavery...
(Presidential Escort), and served in Kuwait and Iraq in 1994 during Operation Vigilant Warrior
Operation Vigilant Warrior
Operation Vigilant Warrior was a military operation from 8 October 1994 to 15 December 1994 by the United States in response to two divisions of Iraqi Republican Guard troops moving toward the Kuwaiti border...
.