Brün left Germany in 1936 to study piano and composition at the
Jerusalem Conservatory in
Mandatory Palestine with
Stefan Wolpe, Eli Friedman and Frank Pelleg. While in Palestine, he also worked as a jazz pianist. In 1948, he received a scholarship to further his studies in the United States at
Tanglewood and
Columbia University through 1950. His work in electronic music began in
Paris in the late 1950s, followed by work at the
Westdeutscher Rundfunk Studio for Electronic Music in
Cologne and the
Siemens studio in
Munich. During the 1950s, he also worked as composer and conductor of music for the theater, gave lectures and seminars emphasizing the function of music in society, and did a series of broadcasts on contemporary music. After a lecture tour of the United States in 1962, he was invited by composer
Lejaren Hiller to join the
University of Illinois Center for Advanced Computation in 1963-64, at the conclusion of which he was asked to stay on as a member of the faculty. In Illinois, Brün began research on composition with computers, which resulted in pieces for tape and instruments, tape alone, and graphics. His compositions from this period include
Futility 1964 (1964) and
Non Sequitur VI (1966).
Non Sequitur VI was generated using the
MUSICOMP programming language developed by Hiller and Robert Baker at the
Experimental Music Studios. Brün began programming in
Fortran in the late 1960s as he pursued an interest in designing processes. This work resulted in
Infraudibles (1968) and
mutatis mutandis (1968). The latter was a series of computer-generated
graphic scores. From 1968–74, he co-taught courses at the University of Illinois'
Biological Computer Laboratory with
Heinz von Foerster on cybernetics, heuristics, composition, cognition, and social change. In 1974, the members of the class published the book
The Cybernetics of Cybernetics. In 1972, Brün created a new synthesis technique which generated new timbres by linking and merging tiny portions of waveforms. (Efforts along similar lines are described in the article
Granular synthesis.) From 1980 on, he toured and taught with the
Performers' Workshop Ensemble, a group he founded. Brün was instrumental in helping the then fledgling Computer Music Association get started in the middle 1970s, helping host conferences at the University of Illinois in 1975, and again in 1987. He was invited to give the keynote address at their annual conference in 1985. Brün was awarded an honorary doctorate from the
Goethe University Frankfurt (1999) and the
Norbert Wiener medal from the
American Society for Cybernetics in 1993. He helped found the
School for Designing a Society in 1993 and taught there through the year 2000. His awards and honors also include the SEAMUS Award for Lifelong Achievement (2000), and a prize from the International Society of Bassists (1977). In 1969, he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ohio State University. He was one of two participants from the United States invited by UNESCO to their symposium
Music and Technology (1970). He was
Guest Professor invited jointly by the Hochschule der Künste and the Technische Universität Berlin (1978);
Composer in residence at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (May 1982);
Composer in Residence at the University of Missouri (Kansas City) (1983); and
Guest Composer at the annual convention of the Percussive Arts Society, St. Louis (1987). Brün's students at the University of Illinois were referred to, often pejoratively, as "Brünettes". His notable students include
Stuart Saunders Smith and
Sarah Hennies. ==Life==