Sean Friar

Sean Friar grew up in Los Angeles, where his first musical experiences were in rock and blues piano improvisation. His music keeps in touch with the energy and communicative directness of those musical roots, now along with an expansive classical sensibility that is “refreshingly new and solidly mature… and doesn’t take on airs, but instead takes joy in the process of discovery [and] in the continual experience of suspense and surprise that good classical music has always championed.” (Slate Magazine).

A winner of the Rome Prize, Friar composes for ensembles within and outside traditional concert music, including works for orchestra and chamber ensembles to a junk car percussion concerto, laptop orchestra, and microtonal piano duo. He has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, and Ensemble Modern. His music has been featured at festivals including Aspen, Bang on a Can, Cabrillo, Carlsbad, Gaudeamus, and the Venice Biennale.

Friar is Chair of Composition at the University of Denver and previously taught at the University of Southern California and UCLA. He holds a Ph.D. in Music from Princeton and undergraduate degrees in Music and Psychology from UCLA. His principal teachers were Paul Chihara, Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, and Dmitri Tymoczko.