[2] In 1969 Brown went on to teach composition at the Royal Academy, where he stayed for nearly 40 years:[6][7] his pupils there and at Cambridge included Kit Armstrong, Charlotte Baskerville, Dominy Clements, Jonathan Pitkin and John Webb.
[8][9] Much of his work has been choral or vocal, including Three Shakespeare Songs (1965), Elegy (1967, for speaker, soloists, chorus and brass quintet), the Herrick Songs (1971), Hodie Salvator Apparuit (1971, described by Rob Barnett as "one of the finest extended choral items in the British repertoire" and performed by Stephen Wilkinson with the BBC Northern Singers),[10] and Mass for 4 Voices (1992).
A Hymn to the Holy Innocents (1965) was his first large scale choral work, scored for chorus and orchestra.
[5][4] His orchestral works include a five movement Sinfonia (1970),[12] The Sun: Rising (1977), Triptych: Three Symphonic Pieces after Dürer (1978), an Organ Concerto (1979) and Ruscelli d’Oro (1990).
[13] More recent compositions include A Five-Gated Well (2009), written for the choirs of Clare College and Trinity College, Cambridge, setting poems by Rowan Williams, and the 24 Preludes and Fugues, composed between 2011 and 2019 and published in 2020.