Bio
Meg Brennan is a multi-woodwindist, composer, arranger, educator, and bandleader, widely regarded for her versatility across musical genres. As a flutist and saxophonist, she has performed with esteemed musicians such as Keyon Harrold, Rodney Whitaker, Ingrid Jensen, Andrew Bishop, and Ellen Rowe. As an international performer, she was selected to represent the University of Michigan at the International Association of Schools of Jazz in Munich, Germany in 2021.
As bandleader of the Meg Brennan Quartet, her accomplishment is marked by performances at notable venues such as the Lansing Jazz Festival, Blue Llama Jazz Club, Cliff Bells, and features on 90.9 WRCJ Detroit and 89.7 WLNZ Lansing. The band has a newly recorded demo that features four of Meg’s original compositions, in which the release date will be announced soon. Other notable venues that she has performed at includes the Detroit Jazz Festival, Blue Llama Jazz Club, Cliff Bells, Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, and the Fox Theater.
Meg began playing the flute at the age of 10. In high school, she was accepted to attend the internationally renowned Interlochen Arts Academy. It was at Interlochen that Meg began composing and arranging music, often incorporating beatbox flute, a skill she gained from working with Greg Pattillo. Soon after graduating from high school, she was featured on Fox 2 News Detroit, where she played her own beatbox flute arrangement of the “Hey Arnold” theme song.
After graduating from Interlochen, she began pursuing a flute performance degree at Michigan State University (MSU). Finding herself completely enthralled by improvisational music, she loaned out a school saxophone and started transcribing Louis Armstrong, Sonny Stitt, and Clifford Brown. After a couple years of being self-taught, Diego Rivera, associate professor of Jazz Studies at MSU, accepted her into his saxophone studio. This ultimately led her to achieving B.M. degrees in both flute performance and jazz studies. During her time at MSU, Meg had the opportunity to play with Christian McBride, Kenny Barron, Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes, Anat Cohen, Antonio Hart, and Peter Bernstein.
Meg completed a masters degree in jazz and contemporary improvisation at the University of Michigan. Of special note are her mentorships with Andrew Bishop, Ellen Rowe, and Miles Okazaki. Additionally, as a selected Graduate Fellow for the Center for World Performance Studies, she conducted research regarding the ways that non-western rhythmic concepts and their modes of transmission influence improvisational techniques. With a passion for expanding women’s representation in jazz, Meg helped organize Music Deconstructed, an online symposium and newly founded LLC that examines race and gender biases in music. Currently, she performs with the prize-winning BETA Quartet, with whom she won First Prize at the France Music Competition 2° and advanced to quarter finalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (2020).
Throughout her career, Meg has enthusiastically shared her knowledge and experience with others. Through her private studio, she teaches students of all ages, backgrounds, experience, and ethnicities across the nation. For more details on music lessons, please visit the teaching page.
