Brian Krock

Brian Krock is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in New York City. He performs on a range of woodwinds in Broadway theatre orchestras and leads the ensembles Big Heart Machine and liddle.

Krock was born in Milwaukee and enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007, graduating in 2011 with a degree in jazz studies and a minor in business. There he studied jazz saxophone under Chip McNeill, whose instruction shaped his interest in composition and arranging. During his time at Illinois, the University Concert Jazz Band recorded Freeplay, which included Krock's composition "Yes, It's True," a piece that earned him an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award. He subsequently relocated to New York City to pursue a Master's in Music at the Manhattan School of Music, studying composition with Jim McNeely. His "String Quartet No. 1," written while at MSM, received the Manhattan Prize. During that period he also co-founded the band Life Size, which released the studio album Bright Size Life.

Between 2013 and 2015, Krock toured internationally with Broadway productions while developing the music that would form his big band album Big Heart Machine. In 2013 he attended the Metropole Orkest Arrangers Workshop, where he studied with Vince Mendoza. The self-titled debut album of his big band, Big Heart Machine, was released on Outside In Music in 2018. The New York Times critic Giovanni Russonello described the record's music as capable of sounding "like migration in motion or a wisp of twisting smoke," citing influences ranging from progressive metal to Carnatic music to late-twentieth-century Western classical composition. Jazz critics Nate Chinen and Russonello both wrote profiles of the ensemble in the context of a broader resurgence in big band music. The album was featured on Best Jazz on Bandcamp, and Krock received coverage in Downbeat Magazine, Stereogum, and the Chicago Reader.

In 2019, Big Heart Machine performed at NYC Winter Jazz Fest, drawing favorable reviews in The Atlantic and the New York Times. That same year Krock toured for seven weeks with Ethan Iverson and The Mark Morris Dance Group, playing clarinet and soprano saxophone in Pepperland. His 2019 follow-up recording liddle featured Big Heart Machine alumni alongside pianist Matt Mitchell and bass guitarist Simon Jermyn. The album was named a Downbeat Editor's Pick and appeared on All Music's Best Jazz Albums of 2019. The band liddle subsequently toured the United States, concluding with a live recording at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut.

When the coronavirus pandemic suspended live performances in 2020, Krock launched a YouTube channel called Score Study, dedicated to composers he admired. The series attracted guest artists including Steve Swallow, Ethan Iverson, Pino Palladino, Blake Mills, and Adam Guettel. He also self-released two live recordings that year: Big Heart Machine's Live at The Jazz Gallery and liddle's Viscera. Krock attended the Bang on a Can Summer Workshop in 2020 and received a commission to compose a new chamber piece. The resulting work, "anti-jazz," written for bass clarinet, flute, and ensemble, was dedicated to Eric Dolphy and drew on Dolphy's musical materials.

From 2021 to 2022, Krock toured the United States as the onstage clarinetist in the Tony Award-winning musical The Band's Visit, a production he had also been associated with during his 2019 Broadway credit.