Alan Pierson

At MIT, he was a timpanist and an assistant conductor with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and also a composer. Pierson continued his studies in music at the Eastman School of Music, where he was a co-founder of the new music ensemble Ossia. Subsequently, he was a co-founder of the related new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which gave its first concert in 2001. Pierson became the first music director of Alarm Will Sound in the same year, and continues to serve in the post. In January 2011, Pierson was named the artistic director of the former Brooklyn Philharmonic. When the orchestra suspended operations in 2013 his contract was not renewed. Pierson also serves as principal conductor of the Crash Ensemble in Ireland, and has guest conducted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, New World Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Beth Morrison Projects, and Symphoniker Hamburg. Pierson has resided in New York City since 2002. He is currently on faculty at Northwestern University. In February 2013, Pierson was featured on the Radiolab episode "Speedthoven". In 2022, the Eastman School awarded Pierson its Centennial Award. In 2026, he received the Grammy award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for his recording of Donnacha Dennehy's Land Of Winter. Pierson's immersive and durational Steve Reich staging, Music for 18 Musicians: Staged Variations, premieres at The Park Avenue Armory on October 14, 2026.

Alan Pierson studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Eastman School of Music and Francis W. Parker School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is conducting and music.