Brian Torosian, an active soloist and chamber musician on guitar, lute, and mandolin, has performed in concerts throughout North America. In addition to the standard six-string guitar, he plays baroque guitar, Terz guitar, and 10-string guitar replicas, the latter two made for him by R. E. Bruné after 19th-century Viennese instruments. Concert performances include appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, His Majesties Clerkes, and Classical Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Torosian completed his doctoral studies at Northwestern University with Anne Waller, and also studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy where he received Diplomas of Merit, and an honorary scholarship. He has taken numerous master classes with Eliot Fisk, Paul O'dette, Pepe Romero, Manuel Barrueco, Robert Guthrie, Sérgio and Odair Assad, David Starobin, Mark Maxwell, Nigel North, Eduardo Fernandez, and David Russell as well as early music and continuo studies with Mary Springfels and David Schrader. Brian is the current president of the Chicago Classical Guitar Society.

Long an exponent of the music of nineteenth-century virtuoso guitarist and composer J. K. Mertz, Torosian's doctoral dissertation, Mertz in America, chronicles the music of Mertz in the United States in the early twentieth century. Brian's published editions include Mertz's Opern-Revue, Mertz's trio for violin/flute, viola, and guitar, Divertissement, Op. 32 (DGA Editions); an anthology of operatic concert works entitled Selected Operatic Fantasies of Mertz (Mel Bay); as well as new editions of Mertz's selected works published by Chanterelle Verlag, Heidelberg. His recordings include a track on the harp guitar compilation Christmas Present and a collection of Mertz’s guitar and piano duos, which features premiere recordings of newly-discovered concert works. Brian is also an accomplished electric guitarist, with over 100 compositions in contemporary popular styles.

Northeastern music majors specializing in guitar performance often elect to supplement their classical studies with lessons on jazz guitar, early music performance practice, mandolin, or lute. These students can receive permission to access to the university's guitars, mandolin, and renaissance lute.