Marguerite Brown

Marguerite Brown (b.1990) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who explores new mediums, forms, and performance practices with an emphasis on unorthodox approaches to tuning and temperament. In her compositions, algorithms often provide a framework for indeterminate parameters to unfold, where performer control and composer control play an equal role in realizing the vision.

Marguerite received first place in the 6th International Microtonal Guitar Competition (composition category) with her piece “Solo (Daisy)” which she performed on a guitar refretted in an original 11-limit just intonation tuning system.

Her other work for refretted guitars was recently published in the microtonal journal Edition Zalzal, as well as presented at the 2021 21st Century Guitar Conference and the 2021 Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival. Marguerite was also recently awarded the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Prize for her string quartet in just intonation titled “chroai: tetrachords”, which will be performed in New York City during Mivos Quartet’s 2022-23 season.

Marguerite holds a BM in music composition from Cornish College of the Arts (2013), a MA from the University of California, Santa Cruz (2019), and is currently a PhD student in music composition at the University of California, San Diego.