Reviews

“Mr. Brandenburg’s music spreads joy.”

- Alvin Klein, The New York Times

“By deploying the big band sound of the ’40s, composer and co-producer David Brandenburg has substituted raucous jazz and bawdy blues for the wimpy lute and lyre usually associated with the musical interludes Shakespeare incorporated in ‘Much Ado.’”

- Steve Parks, Newsday

Brandenburg “collaborated on one of the best productions of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING that I’ve ever seen, composing the music and conducting an onstage ‘big band.’ He is a talented artist with a highly developed ability to collaborate with artists from diverse disciplines.”

- Robert Zukerman, Theatre Program Director, New York State Council on the Arts

“I told a friend of mine today that I was coming to Yale to hear the Yale University jazz band and that it was being conducted by David Brandenburg, and they reminded me that Lionel Hampton used to call all his favorite musicians ‘Gates’ because they could swing. David Brandenburg has a double reason to be called ‘Gates’.”

- Sue Mingus

“David M. Brandenburg’s original score, with its dissonant calypso sounds, is mood-enhancing and interesting.”

- Alvin Klein, The New York Times

“But the genius of this delightful seaside repast is in the embroidery of director Landman, amplified with incidental music by producer David Brandenburg.”

- Seve Parks, Newsday

“Focusing on the first half of the poem, Mr. Brandenburg repeats the text several times. With each iteration, he displays the knowledge and compositional agency he holds within several musical genres, setting the text in ever-changing harmonic languages and mixed meters within the context of classical fugues and waltzes, contemporary dissonances, and Sondheim-esque musical theater.”

- Anthony Madonna, The East Hampton Star

“David Brandenburg’s original music, played by a small group of fine musicians, enhances and deepens the drama.”

- Lee Davis, The Southampton Press

“On opening night, the audience cheered and clapped to Mr. Brandenburg’s lilting wedding song.”

- Regina Weinreich, The East Hampton Star

“Mix in an eruption of some abandoned dancing to the wacky choreography of Tracy Bersley and the inspired music of David Brandenburg, and it all adds up to a rib tickling trip to a midsummer midway of constantly hilarious surprises.”

- Lee Davis, The Southampton Press

“Musical director David Brandenburg and the rest of the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival have poured new life into this comedy of love, marriage, false accusations and just rewards.”

- Ben Amato, Montauk Pioneer