Masterworks: Brass & Bernstein
Program
Antonín DVOŘÁK – Carnival Overture, Op. 92
Jeff SCOTT – Athena Trumpet Concerto (Alabama Premiere)
Mary Elizabeth Bowden, trumpet
Jennifer OLIVERIO – Concerto for Two Trumpets and Strings (MSO Commission, World Premiere)
Mary Elizabeth Bowden, trumpet
Bryan Reeves, trumpet
Leonard BERNSTEIN – Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Mary Elizabeth Bowden
Classical trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden is a highly in-demand soloist, praised for her “splendid, brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine). A Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, Opus Klassik Nominee, and Yamaha Performing Artist, Bowden works to establish anew repertoire for the trumpet through creative commissioning projects and award-winning albums.
Bowden begins her 2024/2025 season off summer engagements as a festival artist and coach at Yale Summer Music School’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and at Lieksa Brass Week in Finland, where she appeared for multiple solo performances and served on the Trumpet Competition Jury. In June 2024, Bowden released her new solo album, Storyteller – made up entirely of trumpet concerti by living composers – on Cedille Records. Bowden has also released two acclaimed recordings on Summit Records: her debut album, Radiance (featuring new American works), and her second solo album, Rêverie with the Kassia Ensemble. Among her many creative projects, Mary is a founding member and artistic leader of Seraph Brass, an ensemble of America’s top female brass players that was awarded the 2019 American Prize in Chamber Music. Bowden currently plays Principal Trumpet of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra and is a member of the Iris Collective. She also founded the Chrysalis Chamber Players.
Jeff Scott
Jeff Scott served as French hornist of the Oberlin-founded ensemble Imani Winds for more than 20 years, a position that took him to Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, and countless other prominent stages. He was most recently Associate Professor of Music at Oberlin College Conservatory. His evening length work “Passion for Bach and Coltrane” which involves original arrangements and newly composed music juxtaposing the work of J. S. Bach and John Coltrane received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium in the spring of 2024.
Scott has been a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theater of Harlem since 1995, and he has performed numerous times with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. He was an orchestra member for The Lion King’s Broadway run from 1997 to 2005, as well as the 1994 revival of Show Boat.
In the studio, Scott has performed on movie soundtracks by Terence Blanchard and Tan Dun, and has collaborated with the likes of Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Chris Brubeck, Jimmy Heath, and others. He has toured with the backing ensembles of Barbra Streisand and Luther Vandross.
Insatiable in his appetite for all aspects of the creative process, Scott has served as composer or arranger for a multitude of projects, including an Off Broadway production of Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee and the staged production of Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot!, in addition to many original works for solo winds and ensembles of all kinds.
Currently in demand as a composer of concert music, Scott has recent performances and commissions by the Detroit Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and countless other ensembles and soloists.
Jennifer Oliverio
Dr. Jennifer Oliverio is a celebrated cornet and flugelhorn player who holds the positions of principal cornet with the Fountain City Brass Band and flugelhorn with the Athena Brass Band. Jen is currently the Assistant Professor of Music in trumpet at Missouri Western State University and one of the directors for the Fountain City Youth Brass Academy.
Jen is an avid supporter of new music for cornet and flugelhorn, having commissioned and premiered solo works by Lucy Pankhurst, Dorothy Gates, Kevin Day, Andrea Hobson, and Jen Mitchell for her premiere solo album Enigma. Her work on Enigma received overwhelmingly positive reviews and was nominated for the 4barsrest Album of the Year, a silver medal in the Global Music Awards, and winner of the 2023 American Prize in brass performance. She recently released her own collection of pieces titled: 18 Short Etudes and is preparing for the release of her upcoming duet book.
Jen has served on the board of directors for the Fountain City Brass Band, the Athena Brass Band, the Visionary Panel for the National Youth Brass Band of America, and currently as the column editor for the International Trumpet Guild’s cornet column. As a clinician, Jen regularly performs and presents at national and international festivals including: the International Trumpet Guild Conference, Brass Institutes of America, International Women’s Brass Conference, PRIZM Chamber Music Festival, and the Eastman Summer Trumpet Institute. In her freelance work, Jen has performed as an extra with the Kansas City Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony and is a founding member of the Trilogy Brass Trio.
As a teacher, Jen has had students accepted as semi-finalists in the National Trumpet Competition, semi-finalists for the International Trumpet Guild solo competitions, and as winners in the North American Brass Band Championships solo and ensemble competitions.
Jen is the proud mother to her son Ben and wife to her husband Patrick.