Discipline: Music Composition

Dana Brayton

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Jamaica Plain, MA
MacDowell Fellowships: 1989
Dana Brayton (1952-2006) was a composer and film orchestrator. After studying at Lake Forest, Pomona College, and the University of Washington, the Brookline native returned to the Boston area, where he earned a master's degree in composition from the New England Conservatory and a doctorate from Boston University. He was also a fellow in the Tanglewood and Charles Ives programs. Drafted into the military in 1973, Brayton never went to Vietnam. Instead, he was sent to Berlin, where his musical talent made him a natural for the Army band, which staged battles with bands from other nations. Almost three decades later, Brayton paid tribute to the soldiers who did serve in Vietnam with his theatrical work The Things They Carried. He taught briefly at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and the Berklee College of Music before joining the faculty at the Boston Conservatory in 1995. An avid outdoorsman who relished his time spent sailing, swimming, hiking, and biking, the composer died July 3, 2006, of an apparent heart attack while on a long-distance bicycle ride.

Studios

Barnard

Dana Brayton worked in the Barnard studio.

Originally built near MacDowell's Union Street entrance, the Barnard Studio — which was funded by Barnard College music students — was re-located to its current site in 1910. When the small structure was moved, its size was doubled with the addition of a second room. This remodeling, financed by Mrs. Thomas E. Emery of Cincinnati…

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