Artistic Staff

Ryan James Brandau, Artistic Director

Conductor Ryan James Brandau joined the Santa Clara Chorale as its Artistic Director in 2009, bringing to the position broad and deep experience conducting a wide variety of choral and orchestral ensembles.

In September 2009 he joined the faculty of Santa Clara University as Director of Choral Programs. He comes to California from New England, where he was Assistant Director of Choral Activities at Smith College in Northampton, MA; co-founder and director the Valley Voices, a chamber chorus in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley; and choirmaster of the highly acclaimed all-professional choir of Christ Church, New Haven, CT. Previously he directed the United Girls Choir of North Haven and the choir of the Episcopal Church at Yale. He also served as principal assistant conductor of the Yale Camerata, managed the Yale Schola Cantorum, and taught counterpoint and harmony in the music department at Yale College. He remains active as a choral arranger, composer, clinician, and professional singer. He has performed with professional ensembles in China and Japan, and throughout Europe and the US. His arrangements and compositions have been featured by choral ensembles all over the country.

Ryan received the Master of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees and will receive the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music, where he studied conducting with Simon Carrington and Marguerite Brooks. Prior to pursuing graduate study in conducting, Ryan attended the University of Cambridge in the UK as a Gates Scholar, earning an MPhil in historical musicology. In Cambridge, he founded a women's chamber choir, Conspiratio, and sang with the choirs of Jesus, King's, and Clare Colleges. He received his B.A. in music, magna cum laude, from Princeton University.