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Jeffrey Brillhart

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Jeffrey Brillhart
Lecturer in Organ Improvisation Institute of Sacred Music
At YSM Since: 2005
Award(s): Elaine Brown Award for Choral Excellence in Pennsylvania presented by the American Choral Director’s Association (2016), American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation winner (1994)
Through twenty-five years of teaching improvisation, I have developed a teaching style that helps the student express what is inside his/her musical soul through the art of spontaneous music creation. I do this in an atmosphere of encouragement and positive reinforcement as the student’s potential as an improviser blossoms and matures.

Jeffrey Brillhart

Through twenty-five years of teaching improvisation, I have developed a teaching style that helps the student express what is inside his/her musical soul through the art of spontaneous music creation. I do this in an atmosphere of encouragement and positive reinforcement as the student’s potential as an improviser blossoms and matures.

Jeffrey Brillhart has performed as a conductor and organist throughout the United States, South America, South Africa, Mexico, and Europe, and is known for his musical versatility. He received his master of music degree from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

Brillhart maintains an active schedule as a conductor, organist, competition adjudicator, and clinician. He is the Director of Music and Fine Arts at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, where he oversees music, education, and arts programs serving more than 200 singers of all ages. He is also the Artistic and Music Director of Philadelphia’s acclaimed Singing City Choir, which was established in 1948 as one of the first racially integrated community choirs in the United States. Under his direction, Brillhart’s choral ensembles have performed alongside many notable ensembles and have toured internationally.

At Yale, Brillhart teaches “Improvisation at the Organ.” His first organ improvisation textbook, Breaking Free: Finding a Personal Voice for Improvisation through 20th Century French Improvisation Techniques, was published in 2011 by Wayne Leupold Editions. The second, A World of Possibilities: Master Lessons in Improvisation, was published in 2018 by Wayne Leupold Editions.