Brian Baumbusch, born April 23, 1987, in Washington, D.C., is a multifaceted composer, instrument builder, musicologist, and software developer, renowned for his pioneering contributions to the realm of polytempo music and cross-cultural collaboration. Baumbusch is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, among others. His music has been commissioned and produced by institutions such as The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco); The Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.) and Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich, Germany).
His innovative work draws inspiration from American Mavericks like Conlon Nancarrow, Lou Harrison, and Harry Partch, and is distinguished by his development of new music technologies and alternative acoustics paradigms through the creation of new instruments and tuning systems. Baumbusch is a champion of new performance practices achieved through intercontinental collaborations as well as computer-assisted live performance and recording projects. His music has been celebrated for its inconspicuously complexity, particularly through his use of polytempo in the performance of live acoustic music achieved via computer programmed click-track matrices.
His extensive ethnomusicological research spans Argentine-Quechua folkloré to Balinese gamelan, influencing his compositions and instrument designs. He founded the Lightbulb Ensemble in Northern California in 2013, a group known for performing on unique instruments created by Baumbusch. He has also collaborated with leading ensembles in Bali, with premieres at the Bali Arts Festival (Denpasar, Indonesia). His two sets of “American Gamelan” instruments, built between 2010 and 2021 are housed in Bali and performed on by the Balinese ensemble Nata Swara.
Baumbusch’s dedication to cross-cultural exchange and music education continues as he teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz, while residing in Alameda, California.