John Wolf Brennan, born on February 13, 1954, in Dublin, Ireland, is a pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer who moved to Switzerland at age seven. He began piano lessons at eleven and later played keyboards in a jazz-rock band. Brennan studied at the University of Fribourg, the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, the Lucerne Conservatory, and the Academy of Church and School Music. In 1977, he founded the free jazz group Freemprovisations and later formed Impetus. Throughout the 1980s, Brennan collaborated with notable musicians such as Corin Curschellas, Christy Doran, and Urs Leimgruber. He released his album Entupadas in 1988 and founded the quartet Pago Libre the following year. In the early 1990s, he worked with Lindsay Cooper and Daniele Patumi, establishing the SinFONietta ensemble in 1991. Brennan's notable collaborations include working with Alex Cline in the quintet Shooting Stars & Traffic Lights and with Arkady Shilkloper in Pago Libre. He developed "comprovisation," a term he coined in 1989, and released solo albums such as The Beauty of Fractals (1989) and Pictures in a Gallery (2006). Brennan has composed film music, chamber music, and operas, including Güdelmäntig (2004) and Night.Shift (2007).
