Brian Crosby
Brian Crosby is an Irish pianist, producer and film composer. He has worked on several international feature films, TV series, documentaries and commercials over the past 20 years.
Brian comes from an indie background and started his music career in a band with Damien Rice which later became Bell X1 with whom Brian recorded four records and toured the world extensively between 1996 and 2008. During this period Brian also founded The Cake Sale – a band featuring an eclectic collective of artists such as Paul Noonan (Bell X1), Lisa Hannigan, Gary Lighbody (Snowpatrol), Nina Persson (The Cardigans), Glen Hansard and Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) to raise funds for the charity Oxfam.
In 2009 Brian moved his life to Berlin and converted a 3,500 sq ft factory in the city’s Kreuzberg district to a modular studio complex. The studio rapidly became home to a thriving Berlin film music scene and it was here that he collaborated with fellow studio residents Dustin O’Halloran, Hildur Guõnadóttir, Rutger Hoedemaekers and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson on numerous Film and TV scores. During this period he also co -wrote a body of original work to be performed on two pianos with French pianist Fabien Leseure.
Brian maintained strong ties with the Irish music scene and in 2016, alongside many well-known figures in Irish contemporary music, was a central collaborator on Starboard Home, a project which culminated with two live shows at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the release of a critically acclaimed studio album
In 2017, Brian moved back to Ireland with his family and two years later set up home in rural county Wicklow at the foot of Carrick Mountain. Inspired by the wooded landscape around him, he designed and built Treehouse Studios, a beautiful state of the art facility set in the native Irish forest that surrounds his home. It was here that Brian recorded his debut solo album Imbrium which was released in the Spring of 2021 while most of the world was still in lockdown. The Sunday Times describes the record as “nine unadorned piano instrumentals capture the stillness of life suspended, each piece as delicate and moving as it is restrained. The result is a quietly meditative work perfectly in tune with our present lives”, while The Irish Times says “Gorgeous gems to enthral and delight. Imbrium is a soothing and riveting new chapter“.
In addition to creating and performing his own solo work, Brian continues to write music for Film and TV and is a vocal advocate for artists rights, is a director of the Irish Music Rights Organisation and is Chair of the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland.