Neely Bruce — Composer, Pianist & Scholar of American Music
UPCOMING
SEPT 17, 2026 · 7:30 PM
The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets
Edgerton Hall · Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT
Massed choir with the SHU Choral Program & community singers, conducted by Christopher Grundy
SEPT 20, 2026 · 3:00 PM
Songs for Low Voice
Crowell Concert Hall · Wesleyan University
Christopher Grundy, baritone · Bryan Chuan, pianist
SEPT 22, 2026 · 7:00 PM
Songs of Neely Bruce
Edgerton Hall · Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT
Christopher Grundy, baritone · Bryan Chuan, pianist
SEPT 27, 2026 · 2:00 PM
CPTV Broadcast: The Bill of Rights
Ten Amendments in Eight Motets
Check local listings for the station in your area
SEPT 27, 2026 · 4:00 PM
Works of Richard Winslow: Two World Premieres
Crowell Concert Hall · Wesleyan University
Greater Middletown Chorale sings Winslow’s Psalm Set; Neely Bruce conducts For the Country Entirely
NOV 13–14, 2026
Timaeus and the Teacher, Foreword
Venice, Italy · time and location TBA
Libretto by Tammy Nguyen · choreography by Jamal Jackson
FEB 2027 · DATES TBA
Atalanta String Quartet
Crowell Concert Hall, Wesleyan University · New York, NY
A String Quartet for Marcel Duchamp · Fugue in Four Greek Modes · A String Quartet for Aaron Copland
APR 1, 2027 · 10:00 AM
Lecture Recital: The Well-Tempered Clavier
Musical Club of Hartford · Westminster Presbyterian Church, West Hartford, CT
“The Pleasures and Problems of Learning the Second Volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach”
SUMMER 2027 · DATE TBA
Timaeus Reed Quintet
Crowell Concert Hall · Wesleyan University
An Album for Reed Quintet, with other works for reed instruments
SEPT 2027 · DATE TBA
West End String Quartet
Crowell Concert Hall · Wesleyan University
A String Quartet for Ceci and Sister · Pandiatonic Variations on an Original Theme · A String Quartet for Ralph Matson
SELECTED WORKS
A String Quartet for Alvin Lucier
String Quartet #1. Premiered by the West End String Quartet, November 2011.
Piano Rock Album
The Portals of Saint Bartholomew
Site-specific for St Bartholomew's Church, NYC. For men's, women's, and children's choruses, six soloists, two flutes, clarinet, two trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, six timpani, organ. Forces distributed throughout the space in 16 locations. Performed May 2008.
An Album for String Sextet
My longest piece of string chamber music — five substantial movements clocking in at 35½ minutes; longer than Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (my favorite string sextet) and longer than the first Brahms sextet, but not the second. The first movement, an expansive sonata form, is one of my most Brahmsian conceptions — perhaps it's the medium. "Braided Variations" is modeled on the magnificent two-themed variations of Haydn. The title of the finale is a nod to Benjamin Carr, whose "Paddy Carey, arranged as a rondo" is one of my favorite early 19th-century American piano pieces.
ABOUT
Photo: Christopher Felver · Author of American Jukebox
"Professor Bruce is a persuasive champion…of the alternative American repertoire."
— Michael Nyman, CBE · The Listener, BBC
"…possibly the hardest-working man in the serious-music business."
— Steve Metcalf · Hartford Courant
Neely Bruce is a composer, pianist, and professor at Wesleyan University whose work spans opera, orchestral, choral, chamber, and solo forms.