Originally from Wilmette, IL, north of Chicago, Richard Bruner has been a musician his whole life. He started violin lessons at age 3, and piano lessons at 6. He has added many other instruments over the years. He wrote his first tune at age 8 and had his first premiere in 8th grade when members of his Jr. High orchestra performed his String Quartet No. 1 in A minor. Richard attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, IL, playing in the acclaimed New Trier Symphony Orchestra, as well as studying music theory (among other things!). He also earned Eagle Scout through the Boy Scouts of America, leading a large ensemble of fellow scouts and friends in two concerts mostly of music he composed or arranged at Chicago-area retirement homes for his service project.

Richard attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, majoring in film scoring with a minor in acoustics and electronics. He chose violin for his principal instrument, playing in the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra as well as over 60 student film scoring recording sessions in addition to conducting his own. He graduated summa cum laude in 2012. 

After graduating from Berklee, Richard moved out to Los Angeles, CA, where he currently lives pursuing a career in music for media and music in general. He is currently a music library manager, having helped run operations at the Chicago Music Library in Encino, CA for several years ending as its Director of Operations and currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer for KQM Entertainment Group, organizing the launch of their production music library, KQM Production Music.

Richard is also currently a student in California State University - Northridge’s (CSUN) Master of Music in Music Composition program, studying with Dr. Patrick O’Malley and Dr. Liviu Marinescu. He began his studies in 2023 and is expecting to complete the degree in 2025.

He composes orchestral and chamber music, some of which has been premiered by ensembles in the LA area and elsewhere, as well as electronic music and folk music arrangements. He also works as a freelance music preparation specialist for both film score recording sessions and concert music, as well as lead sheet transcription. 

Richard is an active performer, playing violin or viola in several orchestras around the LA area, including the Symphony of the Verdugos (where he is principal viola), the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Topanga Symphony Orchestra, and the Crown City Symphony, along with freelance concerts and recording sessions around town. He also plays fiddle and tin whistles with the Scottish Fiddlers of Los Angeles, and his tunes have placed multiple times in the national Scottish F.I.R.E. composition competition. See the Tunebook page for more information.

You can find and purchase Richard’s sheet music at Scoreexchange.com, and audio demos (both live and synthesized) at his SoundCloud profile as well as on this website. Please get in touch if you want to talk to Richard about anything!

Find Richard’s full resume here

Richard has also been working on a paper about his personal musical philosophy, called “[Capital-M] Music”. You can find the current version of that paper here. Please note that this is still a work in progress at this point in time (early 2024).