Marguerite Brown (b. 1990) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who explores new mediums, forms, and performance practices with an emphasis on unorthodox approaches to tuning and temperament. In her compositions, algorithms often provide a framework for indeterminate parameters to unfold, where freedom of performer interpretation can contribute to a shared sense of vision.
Marguerite received first place in the 6th International Microtonal Guitar Competition (composition category) with her piece Solo (Daisy) which she performed on a guitar refretted in an original 11-limit just intonation tuning system. Her other work for refretted guitars was recently published in the microtonal journal Edition Zalzal, as well as presented at the 2021 21st Century Guitar Conference and the 2021 Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival.
Marguerite was also recently awarded the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Prize for her string quartet in just intonation titled chroai: tetrachords, which Mivos Quartet performed frequently during their 2022 - 2023 season. Additionally, her work has been performed by members of Ensemble Dal Niente, Del Sol String Quartet, Gamelan Pacifica, Ghost Ensemble, Bent Frequency, among others.
Marguerite has a BM in music composition from Cornish College of the Arts, MA from the University of California Santa Cruz, and is currently a PhD student in music composition at the University of California San Diego.
