Catherine Brookman is a Brooklyn-based performer and composer. She will release her debut album “If A Song Fades Out, It’s Playing Forever Somewhere” this year. Her music has been described by The New York Times as “vocally complex, rich and consistently surprising…[with a] sonic glow as entrancing as a phosphorescent sea.”” By mixing vocals with electronics, synthesizers, and poetry, her music seeks to uncover the majestic inside of the mundane. Originally from Baltimore, the classically-trained Brookman uses her voice as the primary instrument to create wordless vocal loops / samples to build dreamlike textures and soundscapes. Her music combines storytelling techniques found in folk music with ambient landscapes to create a sonic cocoon, a soft landing space for heartbreak.
Along with making her own work, Brookman is an active performer in contemporary opera and theater at some of the top venues worldwide. She is a regular guest vocalist at the LA Philharmonic, performing works by Meredith Monk, Julius Eastman, and in the 6-hour opera Stranger Love. She has sung alongside artists such as Lorde, Esperanza Spalding, Louis Cole and in the 2020 Vanguard Gala honoring Laurie Anderson. She has performed as a soloist with acclaimed ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, the Orchestra of St Luke’s and Wild Up, contributing vocals to their GRAMMY-nominated records: Julius Eastman, Vol 2 & 3. Brookman performed on Broadway in Hair, and off-Broadway in Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. She is part of the maximal interdisciplinary ensemble CHILD, which created the “hypnotic dance-theatre acid trip” 1-800-3592-113592, which was named The New Yorker’s Best Theatre of 2024 by Helen Shaw. She created the original music for the podcast Very Unbecoming featuring Amy Sedaris on Audible. In 2024, her debut album was presented live with a chamber ensemble at the Carnegie Hill Concert Series in NY. Her work has been featured at Lincoln Center, Pioneer Works, The DiMenna Center, The Public, The Broad, MOCA Geffen, Ars Nova, and more. She recently completed work on Pauline Oliveros/Moira Roth’s The Library of Maps with Long Beach Opera, which she co-composed & performed with Paul Pinto & M.A. Tiesenga. This year, she curated her first show with the Orchestra of St Luke’s Visionary Sounds series, premiering an arrangement of her piece “”The Narrows, The Falls”” by Timo Andres along with works by John Zorn & Courtney Bryan. Upcoming, she is developing a new opera adaptation of Ursula K Leguin’s “The Dispossessed” by Ted Hearne / Chana Porter with Wild Up. She is a 2022 MacDowell Fellow.