Brant Murray

Biography

Brant Murray is a Teaching Assistant Professor and Chair of the Lighting Design and Technology Program. He has over 25 years of experience as a lighting designer, educator, production manager, and consultant. His theatrical design work spans almost every genre: theatre, dance, musicals, opera, concerts, live events, architectural, television, and fashion. Here at Illinois Theatre, Brant is focused on the ABC’S of Lighting Design: Art, Business, Craft, and Science. These four capacities represent an approach delivered to students that includes imagination, dramaturgical analysis, interviewing strategies, shop orders, drafting, paperwork review, photometrics, and pre-visualization software. Here at Illinois Theatre, the lighting faculty are adapting and pivoting to prepare our students for the future, which embraces the incorporation of Moment Work into the classroom, lighting for the camera, lighting for exterior events, ETC Eos Augment3d, Capture, and Vision.

Brant is the Resident Designer for Peridance Contemporary Dance Company (New York City) under the direction of Igal Perry, the Resident Designer for Bodiography Contemporary Ballet Company (Pittsburgh) under the direction of Maria Caruso, a Senior Designer for C & C Lighting (Pittsburgh), and has been an Associate Artist with Ping Chong + Company (New York City) and a Designer for IMCD Lighting (New York City). Prior to the pandemic, he most recently went on an international tour with Peridance to Italy, Israel, and Germany, and collaborated with Martha Graham Dance Company to recreate the lighting for “Steps in the Street” from Chronicle and Buglisi Dance Theatre to recreate the lighting for Threshold.

Projects range from the award-winning Macy’s Herald Square Holiday Windows to New York Fashion Week, and Off-Broadway musicals. For almost ten years, Brant held senior level management positions at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts as a Technical Supervisor and Designer for Lincoln Center Education, and then as the Production Manager for one of the newest venues at Lincoln Center: the David Rubinstein Atrium. He worked with an international array of artists including the Tokyo String Quartet, Meredith Monk, Kelli O’Hara, Emmanuel Ax, and many others. At the David Rubenstein Atrium, Brant oversaw the installation of “Barbie’s Dream House” for New York Fashion Week and Christian Marclay’s 24-hour video art installation “The Clock.”

Brant received his MFA in Lighting Design from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and his BS in Architecture (Drama Minor) from the University of Virginia School of Architecture. He is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829.