Maryclare Brzytwa

MaryClare Brzytwa is a multi-instrumental composer and performer based out of San Francisco, California. Specializing in electro-acoustic music and trained as a flutist, she builds her own custom-designed instruments in Max/MSP which allow her to combine her knowledge of these fields together in service of highly detailed, semi-improvisatory soundscapes. Her range spans contemporary classical, noise, experimental, jazz, free improvised, pop, and ambient music. She has toured extensively in theaters, festivals, and rock clubs throughout the US, Europe, and Japan as both side woman and soloist. Brzytwa studied under master improviser Fred Frith at Mills College, earning a BA in Composition, and earned an MFA while studying under Marc Lowenstein at the California Institute of the Arts.

In addition to her work as a composer, Brzytwa is a devoted educator and creator of the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the first-ever conservatory degree program specifically focused on composition for fixed and interactive media, including writing for film, video games, and the concert hall. Experienced in both academic leadership and audio production, she is the visionary producer behind many of the TAC department’s large-scale studio projects, utilizing some of the best talents the Bay Area has to offer. In addition to writing the curriculum for the program, Brzytwa also designed and managed the creation of the Technology and Applied Composition department’s state-of-the-art recording studios and music technology labs. A champion for diversity in the arts, she serves on the boards of the Game Audio Network Guild and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. As noted by the New York Times in 2018, “…Technology and Applied Composition (TAC), which began offering courses in 2015, has been forging a new identity for the 21st-century composer.”