
RORY BRICCA
COMPOSER

Hey there! I'm a composer from Tucson, Arizona and senior at Yale majoring in Music.
At age five, I started making up my own music at the piano and never stopped. Through training with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Yale University, and Brevard and Bowdoin music festivals, I have written 26 works, for orchestra, band, choir, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and musical theater. My works have reached audiences of 12,000+ through performances by the Boston Pops, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and chamber groups at festivals across the country. I am committed to writing music that is both novel and accessible and love drawing inspiration from concepts in astronomy, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics in my music. Composition teachers of mine include Derek Bermel, Andreia Pinto Correia, Kathryn Alexander, Konrad Kaczmarek, Natalie Dietterich, Greg Simon, and Vincent Calianno.
Events
- Mar. 2026 - Performance of a piece for double bass & piano at the Yale School of Music
- Nov 19, 2025 - Now Ensemble performs Emergence/Ascent at Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media
- Fall 2025 - Tunnel Vision published by Murphy Music Press
- Aug. 3, 2025 - Tunnel Vision performed at the Interlochen Arts Academy
- July 31, 2025 - Temporal Paint (Four Moons by Ann Craven) performed at Bowdoin International Music Festival
- July 27, 2025 - Brevard Music Center Orchestra performs Active Galactic Nuclei in Soloists of Tomorrow concert
- Summer 2025 - Groove Psychosis, Hypnomorphosis, Daybreak, Auto-Contrapunctus No. 1, and forsaken performed at Bowdoin International Music Festival
- July 11, 2025 - Hub New Music reading of Hippocampus at Bowdoin International Music Festival
- May 9, 2025 - Tunnel Vision performed at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition
- Apr. 9, 2025 - Salem performed by the Tucson Unified School District Faculty Orchestra
Praise
"It was so refreshing to hear a piece of new music where I found myself unconsciously humming the tune afterwards. Not only is it catchy, but it's well-conceived, well-structured, well-developed, evocative, quirky... I could go on and on." - Clancy Newman, winner of the International Naumburg Competition, on Duplicity
"I was completely entranced … I hadn’t imagined that music could capture the dynamic environment of a black hole so beautifully. … The graphics you connected to the musical themes were just right.” - Meg Urry, Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy and originator of the Unification Model for Active Galactic Nuclei
“I enjoyed it very much. It's pleasing to hear of another composer discovering 'science music' and the rich possibilities for inspiration when disciplines collide. Your choice of animations, and the sharp edit points, made for a strong multisensory experience - black holes as harbingers of cosmic destruction.” - David Ibbett, composer of Black Hole Symphony and Resident Composer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Press
Classical Archives: Composer Rory Bricca Discusses His New Work, Active Galactic Nuclei
Yale News: Yale juniors honored for leadership, scholarship, community contributions
Yale Daily News: Music major composes orchestra symphony on black holes
Yale Daily News: Palette to Purpose: Yale undergrads use art, music and touch to chronicle the burning world
Symphony.org: Free Tucson Symphony concert to feature premiere by TSO Young Composers Project student
