Brian Howard studied music composition, graduating from The University of Sydney in 1972 with a Bachelor of Music degree with first class honours and from The University of Adelaide with a Master of Music in 1976. After being awarded the Albert H. Maggs Travelling Scholarship in 1976, he continued his studies in Europe.
He has been a conductor, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, the University of NSW and at the NSW Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, musical director of the Western Australian Ballet and Head of Department and Dean at the Western Australian Conservatorium .
In 1988 he worked on three commissions for the Australian Bicentenary and has written for many combinations of voice and instruments, but particularly for opera, his first being Inner Voices, based on a play by Louis Nowra, for the Victorian State Opera in 1979. Other compostions include 'The Rainbow Serpent', 'The Enchanted Rainforest' by Nadine Amadio and 'Fly Away Peter.'
