Keith Brion studied music education at West Chester State University and piccolo with John C. Krell, then taught in New Jersey schools while studying for a master's degree at Rutgers University. He played piccolo with the New Jersey Symphony, and founded the North Jersey Wind Symphony, of which he was music director. He was later a band educator and music supervisor in the New Jersey public schools, and Director of Bands of Yale University, where he led the Yale Band in performances at venues such as the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. In 1979, Brion was accused in a federal lawsuit against Yale University of sexually assaulting an undergraduate student. The suit, Alexander v. Yale, filed in United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, was brought against Yale by several students and one faculty member. It was the first case of sexual harassment to use Title IX of the United StatesEducation Amendments of 1972. This novel and successful strategy was pioneered by several women who would each go on to become successful and influential attorneys: Catharine MacKinnon, then a second-year law student and the current Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School; Anne E. Simon, then working for the New Haven Law Collective and now a California Public Utilities CommissionAdministrative Law Judge; and Ann Olivarius, then an undergraduate student at Yale and now a partner at McAlister Olivarius and one of the leading civil rights lawyers in the United States and England. The plaintiffs in Alexander alleged that Yale illegally violated Title IX in its “failure to combat sexual harassment of female students and its refusal to institute mechanisms and procedures to address complaints and make investigations of such harassment interferes with the educational process and denies equal opportunity in education.” In the Alexander filing, one of the plaintiff’s stated her goal of pursuing a career as a professional musician. But after repeated sexual advances by Brion, her flute instructor, including “coerced sexual intercourse,” she “found it impossible to continue playing the flute and abandoned her study of the instrument, thus aborting her desired professional career.” She also reported that she “was discouraged and intimidated by unresponsive administrators” at Yale when she tried to complain about her alleged rape and sexual harassment from Brion. Her case was eventually dismissed by the court on a technicality. But the Alexander lawsuit became one the most important cases in American legal history to ensure equal education. In 1979, Brion founded the New Sousa Band, of which he is the music director and conductor. This band is dedicated to playing the music of John Philip Sousa and recreating the performance style of Sousa's original band; Brion also appears in the persona of Sousa, dressed as Sousa did. Brion has performed with a number of orchestras and bands, including the Stockholm Symphonic Wind Orchestra, New York City's Goldman Band, The California Wind Orchestra, and the Allentown Band. He has also performed with military bands, such as the United States Marine Band, United States Army Field Band, United States Army Band, United States Coast Guard Band and the U.S. Army Band of Europe in Heidelberg, Germany. Brion has also presented "Sousa revival concerts" with leading American orchestras, such as the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Publications and Recordings
Brion has published many editions of band music, by composers such as Charles Ives, Percy Grainger, John Philip Sousa and others. He is currently recording the complete music of Sousa for Naxos Records with London's Royal Artillery Band. This series is projected to cover 23 volumes. He has also recorded music of Sousa on the Delos label. Additionally, Brion has recorded the music of Alan Hovhaness, including one LP on the Mace label, one CD for Delos and three CDs for Naxos, the latter comprising a three-disc survey comprising most of Hovhaness's music for band and chamber works featuring wind instruments.
