Dr. Sy Brandon (b. 1945 in New York, NY) holds the rank of professor emeritus of music from Millersville University, Millersville, PA where he taught low brass, composition, orchestration, music history, electronic music, and music industry for twenty four years. He received his B.S. and M.S. in music education from Ithaca College and his A. mus. D. in composition from the University of Arizona. His composition teachers include Warren Benson, Elie Siegmeister, and Robert McBride.
Sy Brandon has received numerous awards including first prizes in the WITF-FM's 25th Anniversary Composition Contest, the El Dorado Sacred Music Composition Contest, Franklin and Marshall College’s Wind Ensemble Composition Contest, the New England String Ensemble Composition Competition, the Quadre Composition Competition, the Hillcrest Wind Ensemble Composition Contest, and the 2023 International Tuba/Euphonium Association Tuba Composition Competition. He has received numerous commissions for his music from organizations that include the Boise Philharmonic, York Symphony Orchestra, the Twentieth Moravian Music Festival, as well as numerous professional musicians and school music organizations. In 2010, he was awarded a commission from the Arizona Commission on the Arts to compose the band composition celebrating the Arizona Centennial during 2011-12. In 2015, he was selected to receive the 2018 Thor Johnson Memorial Commission from the Delta Omicron Foundation. He was a finalist for the 2013 American Prize in chamber music composition and a semifinalist for the 2013 American Prize in band music composition. In 2012, he was a semi-finalist for the American Prize in both the orchestral and choral division. In 2024, he was a finalist in the Tampa Bay Symphony Composition Competition. His Three Moods for Tuba and Piano was selected as the required first round piece for the 2025 Leonard Falcone Tuba Performance Competition. He has been a recipient of an ASCAP Plus Award annually since 1998.
During 1973-74, he was composer-in-residence at Boise State University and is presently a member of the Society of Composers, and ASCAP. His music has been recorded by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra on the Albany Records Label, the Philharmonia Bulgarica and the Kiev Philharmonic on the ERM Label, Emeritus Recordings, the Contemporary Record Society, Trutone Records and by the Swiss Duo Dilemme on the Arizona University Label. His music is published by Trombone Association Publishing, HaMar Publications, Imagine Music, Cimarron Music, and Co-Op Press. His book, “A Composer’s Guide to Understanding Music with Activities for Listeners, Interpreters, and Composers” is published by Co-op Press.
Dr. Brandon's music has been performed live and via broadcast both throughout the United States and abroad including performances by the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force Bands and on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and APR’s Pipedreams.
Dissertations on Sy Brandon's Music
There was also a dissertation on my Sonata "Funtasies" by EunHye Grace Choi at the University of Minnesota that is not available online.
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