On The Verge

Rebecca Brandt

Brooklyn, N.Y.
Pocket Composer
www.rebeccabrandtmusic.com

Native New Yorker Rebecca Brandt has already worked on music for a movie, play and commercials and she’s just in her first quarter century of life. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, this summer saw the release of her debut album, Numbers & Shapes, which she wrote and orchestrated for 30-plus instruments. Though her musical interests are quite varied, Brandt is a classically trained composer who studied scoring and composition at New York University. She finds that in addition to art and literature, she’s influenced by the “motivated, artistic” people around her and their creations. “I feel I have to keep up, and that pushes me,” she says, mentioning that some songs on the album were “meticulously thought out” while others “just kind of happened.” Brandt also enjoys exploring layering and various combinations of instrumentation to create “pocket symphonies,” a phrase she says she has borrowed. Brandt saw fun and a challenge in shaping pieces around music theory concepts. “I would sometimes choose an obstacle—like to write a song around the number three—and compose around that,” she says. “For this record, I was largely inspired by numbers, music theory, shapes and contours—hence the title.”