Brian Utley
Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs; Principal Senior Lecturer of Saxophone
CONTACT INFORMATION
Email
(615) 322-4917
2118 Blair
EDUCATION
B.M. (Murray State); M.M. (Louisiana State); D.M.A. (Louisiana State)
Brian Utley is assistant dean for academic affairs and a senior lecturer in saxophone at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he also coordinates the chamber music program. He is a regular recitalist at regional and national conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance, and has performed at multiple NACUSA conferences, World Saxophone Congresses, U.S. Navy Band International Saxophone Symposia and new music festivals.
As an advocate of new music, Utley has commissioned and premiered works by noted composers including David Froom, Leonard Mark Lewis, Stephen Lias, Lidiuno Pitombeira and William Price. Utley is also a regular guest artist and clinician at universities and secondary schools throughout the country, serves frequently as an adjudicator for local, state, and regional competitions, and is a faculty member of the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.
Utley has been a featured soloist with the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony and the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular classical saxophonist with the Nashville Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the contemporary music ensembles Intersection and chatterbird, and with the Blair Woodwind Quintet and the Stone Fort Wind Quintet, among others. Utley’s first solo recording Characters is available on the Mark Records label. The project features 21st-century works by American composers, including three world-premiere recordings.
He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in saxophone performance, with a minor in music theory, from Louisiana State University. He also holds the M.M. from L.S.U. and the B.M. from Murray State University, and his primary saxophone teachers include Griffin Campbell and Scott Erickson. Prior to his appointment at Vanderbilt, Utley served as associate professor of saxophone at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Utley is an endorsing artist for Légère Signature Series Reeds.