Composer Anthony Brandt is Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and Artistic Director of the new music ensemble Musiqa. His catalogue includes four chamber operas, as well as orchestral, chamber, vocal, theater, dance, and television scores.  Recent honors include his third MacDowell fellowship (2023), and fellowships to Copland House (2024), Loghaven (2026) and the Wurlitzer Foundation (2027).  “Meeting of Minds,” his pioneering collaboration with NobleMotion Dance and the University of Houston BRAIN Center, was awarded Chamber Music America’s 2025 Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year Award.  Dr. Brandt and neuroscientist David Eagleman have co-authored The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World, which has been published in fourteen countries.  Dr. Brandt has contributed chapters to the Oxford Handbook of Music and the Brain, upcoming Oxford Handbook of Music and Language and several other volumes, and published papers in the Journal of Creativity, Creativity Research Journal, Frontiers in Psychology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and more.  He founded and directs the Shepherd School’s Music, Mind and Body Lab and is currently a co-investigator in several studies involving music, health and creativity.  Recordings of his music are available on the Albany, Crystal, and Navona Live labels.