Growing up as a pastor's son, Brian's earliest memories are in the church. At the age of fifteen years old, he discovered his gift for music and began leading worship at youth group. By his early twenties, Brian had toured the United States several times and had also travelled to many parts of the world playing music.
After marriage, Brian and his wife Rachel relocated to Los Angeles, CA where they helped plant one of the largest churches in the area. Brian served as the worship pastor for 5 years and developed a culture of worship which included developing worship leaders and musicians, leading the songwriting team, and overseeing multiple studio and live albums.
Brian currently runs an academic training program called The Worship School (www.theworshipschool.com) which he founded in 2013. The Worship School has partnered with many well known worship leaders such as Kim Walker-Smith, Joel Houston, Bryan and Katie Torwalt, John Mark McMillan, Mack brock, and more.
Brian and his family currently live in Nashville, TN.
Two songs "Oh The Joy / Emmanuel" are out now at all digital outlets. EP set to release on Nov. 2, 2018.
Brian Ortize talks about "Open the Windows EP"
"When my family and I moved to Nashville a few years ago, I immediately began to co-write with everyone that I could. That was a really fun and stretching experience for me. It was also intimidating at times because you are meeting someone for the first time and have to get very vulnerable and honest almost immediately. I wrote with several amazing writers on this project, people like Mia Fieldes, Abner and Amanda Ramirez (Johnnyswim), Jonathan Lee, Krissy Nordhoff, Nathan Finochio (The Royal Royal / Hillsong NYC pastor), and more.
Once I had written around 20-30 songs, I began to think through what I wanted to communicate sonically. Since this was my first solo project, I didn’t fully know what I wanted to do musically. I called up my friend, Nathan Finochio, and asked if he would be willing to come hang in Nashville for a few days and demo some of these songs with me. That trip really turned out to work in my favor, ha, because I think Nathan’s flight back to NY was cancelled 3 days in a row. So he ended up staying with me for around a week. During that week, we re-worked many of the songs and also went and did a co-write with producer, Pete Kipley. Once we were in Pete’s studio, I knew I had found my sound. There was an energy and vibe that I hadn’t experienced in any other studio.
It was only a couple months later that I found myself in Texas with Nathan and Pete beginning the process of making music. I really love what Pete brings to a project. He’s not in a hurry and will keep exploring until something is “right”. He and I spent the next year working a day here and a week here crafting the music. Sometimes that meant scratching a song entirely, or sometimes that meant spending a day trying to find the right guitar part. I really appreciate how Pete took the time with me and helped create something that was reflective of me in that season of my life.
The songs themselves speak a lot about trusting God in the unknown times of life. That’s really because I was in that season of life myself when these songs were written. New to Nashville, no money, wife pregnant with our 3rd child, wondering what my purpose was. It was a really stressful time.
My hope is that when people hear these songs, they hear more than just catchy riffs, or fun production, but hear the truth of the words being declared. God is faithful in your life, God is present in your situation, His love is unending for you, His timing is perfect. He is for you!"