Jeffrey Bowen

About Jeffrey

Jeffrey Bowen is a composer, guitarist, and improviser, whose compositional works feature gradually unfolding processes, microtonally inflected harmonic colors, and explorations of perceptual thresholds. He is a co-director of the Inverted Space Ensemble, which promotes new music in Seattle through concerts, commissions, and academic residencies.

His music has been performed across the United States and Europe, and recognized internationally with various awards, grants, and commissions. His piece for violin and live electronics, What Will Sound (was already sound), was recorded by violinist Maja Cerar and released by Parma Records in 2020, and he has presented his work with electronic media at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the International Computer Music Conference, the SEAMUS national conference, and as a resident artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. A touring member of the Harry Partch Ensemble from 2015-2020, he has composed and premiered new pieces for the Partch instruments, including his work for intoning voices and twelve instruments, Where All That’s Solid Melts Into Air. Recent collaborations with Naeim Rahmani’s Seattle-Isfahan Project have resulted in a series of pieces that engage with aspects of Iran’s musical and cultural legacy, presented in thematically unified concert programs of music from contemporary American and Iranian composers.

In addition to playing with Inverted Space, he has performed on electric and classical guitars with the Seattle Modern Orchestra, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra (on their program "The Wheel"), and with the University of Washington Wind Ensemble as the soloist in James Bonney's electric guitar concerto, DARKlightNESS. In 2024 he joined Luke Fitzpatrick (violin) and Ha-Yang Kim (cello) in forming 81:80, a trio dedicated to performing evening-length works that explore alternate tuning systems and structured improvisation.

Qualifications

BA, Music
Stanford University

DMA, Composition
University of Washington