Bryan Young tours the US and internationally as bassoonist and co-founder of the Poulenc Trio. Young serves as the principal bassoonist of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Young studied at the Peabody Conservatory with Linda Harwell and at Yale with Frank Morelli. He has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra. The Washington Post writes that his playing “dances with a lightness and grace uncommon for his instrument,’ and the Baltimore Sun has praised his “particularly beautiful playing, technical agility and understated elegance.’
As a musical collaborator and chamber musician, Young has toured and performed with violinist Hilary Hahn, clarinetists Alexander Fiterstein, Anthony McGill, and David Shifrin, soprano Hyunah Yu, Guggenheim-winning poet Lia Purpura, and appeared with legendary jazz-leader Cab Calloway in his final performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Young has premiered new works written for him by composers Megan DiGeorgio, Octavio Vazquez, Steven Gerber, Thomas Benjamin and David Fetter, in addition to more than 30 new works he co-commissioned and premiered with the Poulenc Trio. Recently, Young was selected by the International Double Reed Society to premiere To Earth by composer Roydon Tse, a work commissioned to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary.
Young is on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory, and has served on the faculty at Morgan State University. He has been invited as featured lecturer and given masterclasses and workshops at Peabody, NYU, Princeton, Tulane, Loyola University, Ohio State University, Rutgers, Brigham Young University, University of Texas, University of Arizona, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, San Francisco State University, Regents University, MD Institute College of Art (MICA), and Towson University. He is a recipient of the Yale Alumni Ventures Grant and the UNCF Award for Excellence.
In addition to his musical activities, Young founded Intertwine Systems, a healthcare focused software company. At Intertwine, Young was featured on the front page of the Baltimore Business Journal as a “mobile software entrepreneur to watch”. Most recently, Young served as Principal Group Leader for Artificial Intelligence Research in Healthcare at MITRE, and is currently a Principal Software Engineer at Expel, a leading U.S. cybersecurity company.
Young is the Board Chair of Chamber Music America, President of the Board of the Candlelight Concert Society in Maryland, and a board member at the Boulanger Initiative. He is a frequent guest commentator on Maryland’s WBJC-FM radio show, Face the Music.