Faculty Profiles

Brian Torosian is an active soloist and chamber musician best known for his work with 19th-century guitarist and composer J. K. Mertz. In addition to standard six-string guitar, he plays baroque guitar, Terz guitar, and 10-string guitar replicas, the latter two made for him by R. E. Bruné after 19th-century Viennese instruments. Torosian is the current President of the Chicago Classical Guitar Society and directs the guitar program of Northeastern Illinois University where he is a multiple recipient of the Instructor Excellence Award. He received bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University as a student of Anne Waller, and studied with Oscar Ghiglia in Italy at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana where he received the Diploma of Merit.

Concert performances include appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony, Chicago Opera Theater, His Majesties Clerkes, and Classical Symphony Orchestra. Long an exponent of the music of J. K. Mertz, Brian's published editions include the first complete edition of Mertz's Opern-Revue, Mertz's trio for violin/flute, viola, and guitar Divertissement, Op. 32 (DGA Editions), an anthology of operatic concert works entitled Selected Operatic Fantasies of Mertz (Mel Bay), as well as new editions of Mertz's selected works published by Chanterelle Verlag, Heidelberg. His recordings include a collection of Mertz’s guitar and piano duos.

Northwestern University
D.M. guitar performance, 2003

Accademia Musicale Chigiana
Diploma di Merito guitar performance, 1994, 1995, and 1996

Northwestern University
M.M. guitar performance, 1995

Northwestern University
B.M. guitar performance and composition, 1989