More About Bri

Where She Started

While many musicians focus on mastering one instrument or genre, Brianne has spent her whole life striving to master EVERYTHING music. At age 3 she began tinkering around on the piano. By age 5 it was discovered she had perfect pitch (absolute pitch) -- a rare natural ability to identify and recreate musical pitches without any reference. At 8 she was figuring out how to play popular radio songs on the piano. She soon moved on to arranging film scores and musical theatre songs. At age 9 she joined the school band, playing her sister's old flute. Not long after she joined her church choir. By age 11 she was already composing and arranging regularly, and she demonstrated an uncanny ability to transpose any musical piece to a new key. Finally, at age 12 she began her professional study of piano with world-renowned professors at a local university. Also after years of harmonizing and singing with her sisters, she began studying voice at age 12 with a local opera singer/musical theatre actress.

Young Musician

Throughout secondary school, Bri continued to immerse herself in music. She showed her mettle by winning California state piano competitions, a regional contest for songwriting, regional vocal competitions, and by securing roles in multiple audition-based bands, orchestras, and choirs. Her music teachers came to rely on her abilities -- some had her arranging piano pieces or instrumental parts for fellow students, subbing as conductor for band or choir class on occasion, student teaching, accompanying the choir, etc. Her marching band instructor even used her as a human pitchpipe when necessary on the field. Bri took every music class available at her school, including jazz band, symphonic band, marching band, madrigals choir, drumline, and more. She'd then come home and play the piano for hours.

By the time Brianne graduated high school she'd learned how to play everything from the flute and piccolo to the french horn, saxophone, clarinet, keyboards (i.e. marimba/xylophone), and others. She'd been drum major and conductor and had taught piano lessons on her own for several years. She'd put together countless vocal and piano arrangements, which she performed at church functions, weddings, and other local functions. Several times she performed on-stage as a solo or with a small group in front of thousands of people at a church youth retreat. With no AP music theory class offered at her high school, she studied it on her own and passed the grueling test with top marks.

Taking It to University

Anxious to fill her life with even more music, Bri studied as much music as she could in college, taking every music class there was available as well as chorale, orchestra, and private flute, piano, and voice lessons. She pursued additional academic interests as well, ultimately finishing her collegiate education with a Master's Degree in Sociology. Her sociological studies have proven to be invaluable as she serves as a mentor to students from all backgrounds.

Full-time Musician

Since college, Bri has participated in diverse musical occupations, including teaching, transcribing, orchestrating, composing, and arranging. Bri has composed and orchestrated the scores for full-length musicals, arranged accompaniment tracks for singers, and created full orchestrations for a major city orchestra. She's composed and arranged beautiful choral arrangements in different musical genres. She's become a skilled transcriber of music, a skill greatly enhanced by her perfect pitch. Bri has continued teaching music through the years, and she has also secured multiple positions as a professional accompanist and performer. She is the creator and owner of www.MusicAndTheory.com, where she shares her compositions, arrangements, and music teaching resources with teachers and students worldwide. Bri now resides in Corona, California with her husband and spends her days teaching music, composing, arranging, and orchestrating, as well as performing and participating in other musical opportunities as they come. 

One thing is certain: Brianne has performed in all kinds of settings more times than she can recall, and she has arranged and composed more songs than she can keep track of. She loves to teach music and thrills to see her students succeed and fall in love with music as she has. To her, music is the most beautiful thing in the world. Anything she can do to share music and to help others come to love and appreciate it, Bri will do.