Dr. Brian Runnels first conducted the Houston Civic Symphony in 1979 when he served as Apprentice Conductor with the orchestra under Robert Linder. Since that time, he has conducted orchestras, musical theatre, oratorio, and opera in Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. He returned to Houston in 2005 to serve as Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Houston Baptist University. After earning a degree in music education at that institution he went on to earn a masters degree in church music and choral conducting at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestra conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has had additional conducting training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and in the United States with Max Rudolf and Herbert Blomstedt.

He has held teaching positions at Bemidji State University in Minnesota and Murray State University in Kentucky. In addition to conducting the orchestras, he served both institutions as department chair in music. While serving as Interim Director of Orchestras at UMKC he conducted the premiere performances of Duse and D'Annunzio, an opera by faculty composer Gerald Kemner. He has held conducting positions with the Houston Youth Symphony and the Kansas City Civic Symphony. He remains active in church music, having served several churches as minister of music and has worked with All-State band and orchestra for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

In the fall of 2007 he was named Music Director of the acclaimed Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston.  Since its founding in 1952, G&S of Houston has established a reputation as an internationally recognized amateur G&S opera company.

In addition to his conducting and teaching activities, he has been a presenter at numerous conferences including the National Association of Schools of Music Annual Meeting, the National Convention for Technology Institute in Music Education, Texas Music Educators Association, Kentucky Music Educators Association, Minnesota Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, Southeastern Music Education Symposium, and the Annual Conference for Academic Chairpersons sponsored by Kansas State University. His work has been published in several journals including the Journal of Music Teacher Education, National Issues in Higher Education, and Southeastern Journal of Music Education.

He holds to office of Secretary on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Deans of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of several organizations including the Kentucky Music Educators Association, Murray Civic Music Association, Minnesota Society of Music Education, Minnesota Alliance for Arts in Education, and the Kansas City Civic Orchestra.

He also served as President of the Kentucky Association of College Music Departments as well as several elected offices in the Minnesota Council of University and College Musicians. For Region 8 of the National Association of Schools of Music he served as Vice-Chair and as Secretary.