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About
short formal bio
Brendon Randall-Myers is a Brooklyn-based composer and guitarist working at various intersections of rock, experimental, theater, and classical music. His work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, New Music USA, New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and been performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chicago and Omaha Symphonies, Dither, and Friction Quartet. Brendon co-leads experimental metal band Scarcity, and is a member of electric guitar quartet Dither and the Glenn Branca Ensemble. He has performed in clubs, concert halls, and basements around the world, including the Barbican Theatre (London), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), and the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing).
artist statement
The foundation of my practice is formal composition animated and evolved through close collaboration with fellow performers. My work aims to create conditions of total focus on a single, physically demanding task, evoking flow and trance states I’ve experienced in maximal effort physical exercises such as distance running races and heavy barbell squats. In these moments of extreme focus, and in the disciplined practice regimens required to safely and sustainably execute them, I ground myself in my body and emotions, as well as in my connections to place, community, ancestors, and mentors.
I center the capacity of time and repetition to redefine the limits of our bodies and minds, incorporating decades-long parallel practices of guitar study and fitness/physiology; a career performing rock, experimental, and classical music; research into sound perception, movement, anatomy, and instrumental history; and a life navigating identity, place, and belonging as a Jew in West Virginia, Beijing and Brooklyn. Crystalizing intuition and emotion through discipline and structure, I iterate and amplify extreme musical meditations into deeply personal pieces.
My music continuously iterates on concise ideas, slowly evolving and building over 10-30 minutes to moments of energetic release and catharsis. I create in close dialogues with other artists, drawing on our shared musical and personal histories. I use amplification and electronics to bring focus to otherwise imperceptible sonic details, and to create immersive, overwhelming listening experiences.
long formal bio/resume
Brendon Randall-Myers is a Brooklyn-based composer, guitarist, who creates intricate and visceral music at various intersections of rock, experimental, theater, and classical. A former varsity college track athlete and NCSF-certified personal trainer, his work frequently evokes states of flow and focus experienced on 20-mile runs and heavy barbell squats, iterating and amplifying concise musical materials into extreme meditations.
Brendon’s music has been described as “a trance that’s always in motion…creating a physical and emotional sensation to ultimately make the listener feel as if they’re part of something larger than themselves” (Bandcamp Daily), and includes works for his groups Scarcity, Marateck, and Invisible Anatomy, as well as classical performers (Friction Quartet, Exceptet, Chicago Symphony), cross-genre/experimental groups (Bang on a Can All-Stars, Dither, Warp Trio), and film scores (Docked, Swimming with Stones, We the Economy: Recession). His work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, New Music USA, New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation, the Guitar Foundation of America, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, Roulette Intermedium, Banff Centre, and Avaloch Farm.
Brendon has released recordings of three album-length instrumental works: Only in the Dark (cmntx records, 2025); A Kind of Mirror (slashsound records, 2021) Dynamics of Vanishing Bodies (New Focus Recordings, 2020). A Kind of Mirror was written as part of a theatrical show Brendon co-created with pianist/ultramarathoner Sawada and director Daniel Pettrow, originally presented by Sawada as part of her 2018 tour, Gather Hear West Virginia. As part of the show, audience members joined Sawada onstage for conversation, storytelling, tea-making, and bubble-wrap popping. Dynamics of Vanishing Bodies premiered at Roulette Intermedium in 2017 and has subsequently been performed by Dither at New Music New College (Sarasota, FL) and on Bang on a Can’s 2019 LOUD Weekend at Mass MoCA (North Adams, MA), and the 2023 Sacrum Profanum Festival (Krakow, Poland).
Brendon founded micrototal black metal band Scarcity in 2020 with vocalist Doug Moore. Scarcity has released two full-length albums via The Flenser and performed throughout the US. Their debut album Aveilut (2022) was described as "an unflinching testimonial on grief and endurance" (Pitchfork); their sophomore effort The Promise of Rain (2024) was called "one of the finest, most thought-provoking black metal albums of the year" (Bandcamp Daily).
Brendon has performed since 2012 with Dither, an electric guitar quartet described by the New York Times as “sophisticated, hard-driving, and stylistically omnivorous music making”. The quartet has performed across the United States and abroad, presenting new commissions, original compositions, multimedia works, and large guitar ensemble pieces. With Dither, Brendon has performed and collaborated with artists including Laurie Spiegel, David Lang, Brian Chase, Michael Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, and John Zorn, and performed at The Barbican Center, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, The Ellnora Guitar Festival, WNYC's New Sounds Live, the Whitney Museum, the Bang on a Can Marathon, The Performa Biennial, and Poland’s Sacrum Profanum Festival.
Brendon co-founded math rock band Marateck and avant-rock multimedia collective Invisible Anatomy, with both of which he toured throughout the US and China from 2014-2020. Invisible Anatomy released their album Dissections on New Amsterdam Records in 2018. Brendon was a member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble from 2016-2020, initially as a guitarist and later as conductor after Branca’s death in 2018.
As a freelance guitarist, Brendon performs with orchestras (China Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony), indie bands (Magik*Magik, Ecce Shnak), new music groups (Ensemble Signal, Contemporaneous), and in opera and ballet pits (Opera Saratoga, Megan Williams Dance). He also does work as a music engraver (Martin Bresnick, Netflix’s The Witcher Seasons 3-4), maintains an active private teaching studio, and trains fitness clients privately and at NYLO Fitness in Tribeca.
Brendon grew up homeschooled in rural West Virginia, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Pomona College (B.A. Music), La Universidad de Chile, and the Yale School of Music (M.M., Composition). His mentors in composition include Martin Bresnick, David Lang, and Kurt Rohde.