Brien Henderson's body of work reflects his love for medieval, Renaissance, and modern classical music, with influences such as Johannes Ockeghem, Cristóbal de Morales, J. S. Bach, and Igor Stravinsky. His music eschews meter in favor of prose-like rhythms as it attempts to disorient the listener by placing the familiar against the foreign. 

He first developed and matured as a saxophonist, and now holds a PhD in music composition from the University at Buffalo. Before Buffalo, he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music composition at San Francisco State University. His Missa Trencadís, for SATB choir and ensemble, premiered at June in Buffalo (2019), exemplifies his neo-Renaissance and trencadís styles, both developed during his doctoral work. His music has been performed by Court-Circuit, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Hausmann String Quartet, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Signal, Slee Sinfonietta, and Sotto Voce Vocal Collective. In 2016, double bassist Megan McDevitt commissioned Brien's Confession for solo double bass, which she premiered at the University of Michigan in 2017.

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