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Feb. 13: Composer/Pianist Michael Stephen Brown Releases TWELVE BLOCKS on First Hand Records
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
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Composer and Pianist
Michael Stephen Brown Releases
TWELVE BLOCKS
Marking His Debut Album as a Composer, TWELVE BLOCKS is a Vivid Tapestry of Tributes and Character Portraits – From Lost Loves and Lifelong Mentors to Eccentric Performers and Legendary Couples
Featuring Brown Alongside
Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, Susanna Phillips, Paul Neubauer, Anne-Marie McDermott, Osmo Vänskä, and Erin Keefe
Watch the TWELVE BLOCKS Trailer
Album Out February 13, 2026 on First Hand Records
Single Schedule:
Released Nov. 28 – “Lake Katrina” – STREAM NOW!
Dec. 12 – “The Meeting”
Jan. 2 – “Soprano”
Jan. 16 – “Twelve Blocks”
Jan. 30 – “Pour Angeline”
“One of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.”
– The New York Times
New York, NY (December 2, 2025) — On Friday, February 13, 2026, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown releases TWELVE BLOCKS, the first album devoted entirely to his original compositions, on First Hand Records. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Brown brings together some of today’s leading performers in a deeply personal collection that spans tributes, intimate character pieces, poetic meditations, and works written for lifelong collaborators.
Praised for writing "exceptionally beautiful" (The Washington Post) works, TWELVE BLOCKS highlights the breadth of Brown’s compositional voice, and across 23 tracks, offers a series of musical portraits – of children, collaborators, mentors, and loved ones – rooted in real stories and lived experience. Performers include Brown, Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, and Anne-Marie McDermott on piano; soprano Susanna Phillips; violist Paul Neubauer; clarinetist Osmo Vänskä; and violinist Erin Keefe. The cover artwork is by American cartoonist and writer Amy Kurzweil, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.
Four Lakes for Children (2024)
Written during a month-long residency at Yaddo, the cycle is inspired by the estate’s four lakes, each named after the retreat founders’ children who tragically died before the age of ten. Brown composed the pieces as playable miniatures for young pianists, each with its own technical puzzle. The final lake, Lake Katrina, has been released as the album’s first single OUT NOW!
Pas de trois (2025)
Written for the SPA Trio – Susanna Phillips, Paul Neubauer, and Anne-Marie McDermott – the three-movement work sets poetry by D.H. Lawrence, Rita Dove, and Brown himself. Each movement reflects the personal and artistic presence of its dedicatee, from introspection to humor to transcendence. The third movement, Soprano, will be released as the third single on January 2.
Relationship (2018)
Commissioned by “power couple” Osmo Vänskä and Erin Keefe, this five-movement duo for clarinet and violin traces the drama and charm of a partnership – connection, argument, tenderness, and an exuberant, folk-infused finale “Hora”. The opening movement, The Meeting, will be released as the second single on December 12.
Twelve Blocks for Piano (Four Hands) and Poetry (2021)
A tribute to Brown’s mentors Jerome Lowenthal and Ursula Oppens, the work weaves together French and English poetry as it marks each block of a walk Lowenthal undertook daily during the pandemic to visit Oppens. The duo premiered They premièred the piece in July 2021 at Saratoga Performing Arts
Center. Their performance is featured on the album, and the movement Twelve Blocks is released as the fourth single on January 16.
Love’s Lives Lost (2023)
Brown’s song cycle for Susanna Phillips sets eight poems by Evan Shinners that follow two former lovers encountering each other again after years apart. By turns tender, mischievous, and elegiac, the cycle is his response to Schumann’s Frauen-Liebe und Leben. It was commissioned by ChamberFest West in Calgary.
Breakup Etude for the Right Hand Alone (2020)
Written during the pandemic when Brown’s left hand was immobilized and he’d just experienced the end of a relationship, the etude is a virtuosic outpouring of frustration, humor, and self-reflection – a technically ferocious piece born of isolation and injury.
Pour Angeline (2024)
The album’s closing single and final track is an intimate homage to Brown’s fiancée, Angeline Gragasin, inspired by Chopin’s A-minor Mazurka. A quietly suspended love letter, it unfolds in a single breath. The piece will be released as the final pre-release single on January 30.
TWELVE BLOCKS Tracklist
Michael Stephen Brown (b. 1987) – Four Lakes for Children (2024)
1. I. Lake Alan
2. II. Lake Spencer
3. III. Lake Christina
4. IV. Lake Katrina
Michael Stephen Brown, piano
Michael Stephen Brown – Pas de trois (2025)
5. I. Piano
6. II. The Violist
7. III. Soprano
SPA Trio:
Susanna Phillips, soprano
Paul Neubauer, viola
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Michael Stephen Brown – Relationship (2018)
8. I. The Meeting
9. II. Connection
10. III. The Argument(s)
11. IV. Ballad
12. V. Finale: Hora
Osmo Vänskä, clarinet
Erin Keefe, violin
13. Michael Stephen Brown – Twelve Blocks for Piano (Four Hands) and Poetry (2021)
Jerome Lowenthal, piano, narration
Ursula Oppens, piano, narration
Michael Stephen Brown – Love’s Lives Lost (2023)
14. I. Introduction
15. II. Meeting
16. III. Parody of Chamisso
17. IV. In-lookers
18. V. Onlookers
19. VI. Chanson Triste
20. VII. Kalamazoo!
21. VIII. Finale: Split Mirror
Susanna Phillips, soprano
Michael Stephen Brown, piano
22. Michael Stephen Brown – Breakup Etude for the Right Hand Alone (2020)
Michael Stephen Brown, piano
23. Michael Stephen Brown – Pour Angeline (2024)
Michael Stephen Brown, piano
Total Timing: 69:43
FHR185
Relationship recorded at Reservoir Studios, NYC on December 2, 2023. Produced and engineered by Silas Brown
Pour Angeline recorded at Shirley Perle Music Room, Gardiner, NY on May 1, 2025. Breakup Etude for the Right Hand Alone recorded at Shirley Perle Music Room, Gardiner, NY on July 31, 2025. Produced and engineered by Michael Stephen Brown.
All other works were recorded at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY, on April 23, 2025. Produced and engineered by Ryan Streber.
All tracks mastered by Ryan Streber.
Album cover art by Amy Kurzweil.
About Michael Stephen Brown
A 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2024 Yaddo Artist, composer-pianist Michael Stephen Brown performs recitals and concertos worldwide and is commissioned by leading orchestras, soloists, and chamber music festivals. Winner of the 2026 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, an Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has appeared as soloist with the Seattle, Phoenix, North Carolina, Albany, and Maryland Symphonies, as well as the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra. His recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Louvre, Wigmore Hall, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.
Brown is currently composing The Carnival of Endangered Wonders: A Zoological Fantasy, a large-scale chamber work co-commissioned by CMS Palm Beach, La Musica (Sarasota), Friends of Music (Kansas City), and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to premiere in 2026. A frequent artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he also tours internationally in a duo with longtime musical partner Nicholas Canellakis and collaborates regularly with Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth, and violinists Arnaud Sussmann and Kristin Lee. A dedicated educator, he gives lectures and masterclasses around the world.
Brown’s compositions have been commissioned by leading organizations and artists, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Bridgehampton and Gilmore festivals, the Maryland Symphony, Osmo Vänskä and Erin Keefe, the SPA Trio, and pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Jerome Lowenthal, Ursula Oppens, Orion Weiss, Adam Golka, and Roman Rabinovich, soprano Susanna Phillips, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis. Recently, he served as Composer and Artist-in-Residence at the New Haven Symphony and is a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award. His symphonic work, American Diaries, draws on words by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and excerpts from his grandfather’s World War II diary.
Selected by András Schiff to perform on an international recital tour, Brown made debuts at Zurich's Tonhalle and New York's 92nd Street Y. He regularly appears at major festivals, including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Saratoga, Caramoor, Bard, Sedona, Moab, and Tippet Rise.
A prolific recording artist, TWELVE BLOCKS, an album of music written for friends and longtime collaborators, will be released in February 2026. In the fall, he’ll follow with another recording, which includes his Piano Concerto and Vortex for cello and strings with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. Additional forthcoming projects include Mendelssohn featuring premieres by Delphine von Schauroth, and the complete nocturnes of Gabriel Fauré.
A First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a recipient of the Bowers Residency from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brown earned dual degrees in piano and composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald, and composer Samuel Adler. Additional mentors have included George Perle, András Schiff, and Richard Goode.
Brown is the composer for Angeline Gragasin’s upcoming film Look But Don’t Touch and lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria. Known for his engaging commentary on music and his colorful socks, audiences eagerly anticipate both his insights and his unique sense of style. Learn more at www.michaelbrownmusic.com.
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