Brian Hanly is the son of violinist Vaughan Hanly and soprano Lorna McKean.
In 1958 he became the youngest member of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
Before leaving Australia for the US in 1965, he was soloist with the ABC orchestras of Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart as a result of winning the ABC concerto competition.
He is Professor Emeritus of violin and chamber orchestra at the University of Wyoming, and he has also taught previously at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore. Some of Professor Hanly’s former violin students include William Preucil, former Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra; Andres Cardenes, former Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony; Michelle Makarski, 1989 winner of the Carnegie Hall International Competition for Violinists; Miho Hashizume (1991 National Winner of the MTNA Wurlitzer Collegiate Artist Competition) who is now a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Akemi Takayama who is Concertmaster of the Roanoke Symphony and Professor of Violin at Shenandoah University.
Hanly’s former teachers include Josef Gingold, Ivan Galamian, and Dorothy Delay.
Professor Hanly has appeared as a soloist and in chamber music numerous times throughout the US, Europe, Latin America, and Australia. As a member of the Western Arts Trio for sixteen years, he was extremely active particularly in contemporary music and was involved in commissioning, giving first performances, and recording five albums for Laurel Record of Los Angeles. For the US State Department, he has performed embassy concerts in Poland, Spain, Colombia, Panama, and Guatemala. The New York Times has called his performances “strong and assured, full of zest and vitality.”
Hanly has served as concertmaster of the Indiana University Philharmonic in Bloomington, as guest concertmaster of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and as concertmaster in Anchorage for the Alaska Summer Festival Orchestra, Robert Shaw, Music Director. In a lighter vein, he made concert tours of the U.S. with Henry Mancini and Andy Williams. He now lives in Colorado, sharing his time between the high desert community of Grand Junction and the Rocky Mountain town of Dillon.
