I’m Hannis Brown, a composer who writes for films and multimedia projects, the concert hall and for multiple layers of myself. Recent commissions and honors include 2019 du-Pont Columbia Awards for the New York Public Radio podcasts Trump, Inc and Caught, a 2015 Peabody Award for work on the podcast Meet the Composer, music for ETHEL string quartet, scores for WNYC's Death, Sex & Money and American Fiasco, Colorado Symphony orchestrations for Olga Bell of the Dirty Projectors and music for the Holiday Windows of Barneys New York. Projects on the horizon include new collaborations with Vox Media, WNYC Studios, and Pineapple Media.
Recent News
The Deal is the story of the Iran nuclear deal; how it came together, how it fell apart, and what that means for the rest of us. From the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Mixing and scoring.
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Last Day is a podcast about what’s killing us, the stuff that’s hard to comprehend and getting worse every day by zooming in on a person’s last day of life. Original music.
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Comedian Chris Garcia sets out to uncover the truth about his dad, a man who survived Castro’s labor camps only to lose his way in search of the American dream. One of Time Magazine’s Top Ten Podcasts of 2019.
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This series from Pineapple Street Media chronicles the final days of author Julie Yip-Williams who prepares for her death by revisiting the events of her extraordinary life.
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The Paris Review Podcast invited me to sound design an episode from their Season 2 launch! Featuring readings by Salmon Rushdie, Devendra Benhardt and more.
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Trump, Inc. is a bold investigation into our president's business practices and their overlap into politics. From WNYC and ProPublica. Winner of a 2019 Columbia-duPont award.
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On The Anthropocene Reviewed, author John Green reviews facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale. For example: Tetris and the seed potatoes of Leningrad
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American Fiasco - hosted by Men in Blazer's Roger Bennett - follows the U.S. men's soccer team's disastrous path to the 1998 World Cup.
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Broad City's Abbi Jacobson hosted this 10-part collaboration between WNYC and MoMA - the winner of a 2018 Webby Award. I particularly love the Questlove episode on monochromatic art.
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In the summer of 2016, a police shooting upended the life of Arnaldo Rios Soto, a 26-year old, non-speaking, autistic man. Aftereffect tells Arnaldo's story – a hidden world of psych wards, physical abuse and chemical restraints
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Caught is a podcast from WNYC News that takes a deep dive into the juvenile detention system. Winner of a 2019 Columbia-duPont award.
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The podcast Note to Self invited me to musically interpret a series of data-ridden postcards currently on display at MoMA.
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I co-produced this episode of Meet the Composer about the weird relationships between performers, composers and audience members.
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ETHEL string quartet performs my "Oh Ah Ee" to celebrate the 30th anniversary of legendary music-radio host John Schaefer.
I composed music for two of the Barneys New York Holiday Windows, one in collaboration with the glass artist Dale Chihuly (on display now at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art), the other for a castle built entirely of ice.