Brett Abigaña’s music has been performed throughout the world, and his music has been commissioned and performed by numerous performers including The United States Navy Band, flutist Hilary Abigana, ALEA III, The Afiara String Quartet, The Webster Trio, The Fourth Wall Ensemble, The United States Army Field Band and Soldiersʼ Chorus, and The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra.

He has written a wide variety of music including chamber music for strings and winds, song cycles, and numerous pieces for orchestra and symphonic band, including several concertos. He has gained a reputation for writing expressive, colorful music, and is much in demand as a guest lecturer, clinician, and conductor.

Mr. Abigaña completed his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School where he studied with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser, and received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University where he studied with Samuel Headrick and Richard Cornell. Other studies include composition, harmony, and counterpoint with Narcis Bonet, Michel Merlet, and Philip Lasser at La Schola Cantorum in Paris, as well as conducting with Judith Clurman, and ear training with Mary Anthony Cox.

In 2011, Mr. Abigaña was commissioned by the United States Navy Band to write his Symphony no. 1 – Omnes Gentes. This work is written for wind band, antiphonal trumpets, soprano soloist, chorus, and organ, and was premiered in 2012 by the United States Navy Band under the direction of CAPT Brian Walden in Washington, D.C. The work was also released on the US Navy Band’s album,Derivations. Since then, the Navy Band has commissioned Mr. Abigaña again to write As The Wood Smoke Rises, for release on their 2014 album, Sea Interludes, and for premiere at the 2014 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.

In 2011, Mr. Abigaña had the honor of having one of his works for band, Petite Overture, named one of the top 11 pieces of 2009 by British conductor, educator, and wind band authority Tim Reynish, after it was premiered at the 2009 World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Convention in Cincinnati, OH.

In 2013, The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mr. Jung-Ho Pak commissioned Mr. Abigaña to write Passing Acquaintance, a double concerto for violin, viola, and orchestra. Since then, they have also commissioned a new completion of Holst’s The Planets, to which Mr. Abigaña added Pluto, the Unseen One, and Apollo, the Bringer of Life, a work commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Cape Cod Canal entitled Through the Bent and Twisted Arm, and Seven Faces of a Stone in honor of the 375th anniversary of the Town of Barnstable.

Mr. Abigaña was recently commissioned by the World Youth Wind Orchestra to write his Symphony no. 2 – Commedia, which will be premiered at the 2015 WASBE Convention in San Jose, CA. The piece will be based on the three canticles of Dante’s Commedia.

Mr. Abigaña is currently on faculty at Boston University Academy, and is the co-founder and Associate Director of the Boston Composers’ Coalition, a non-profit group of composers dedicated to the creation, performance, and dissemination of new American music.