Episode 2 - Mary Elizabeth Bowden
Episode 2 features Mary Elizabeth Bowden, an international soloist, founding member of Seraph Brass, Chrysalis Chamber Players, half of the Dash Duo, Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, trumpet professor at Shenandoah University. We talk with Mary about her recent trumpet concerto commission, how she balances so many ensembles and projects, and advice she has to musicians wanting to create opportunities for themselves.
To learn more about Mary and the groups she is a part of, check out the links below!
Mary Elizabeth Bowden - Website
Mary Elizabeth Bowden - Facebook
Mary Elizabeth Bowden - Instagram
Mary Elizabeth Bowden - Youtube
Seraph Brass
Dash Duo
Chrysalis Chamber Players
Apex Trumpet Symposium
Full Transcript
Carrie Blosser 0:01
Welcome to Diversify the Stand, the resource centered around listening, learning and promoting diverse musical voices in music, through our podcast, website, commissioning projects, and more. I'm Carrie Blosser.
Ashley Killam 0:15
And I'm Ashley Killam. Join us on our journey as we speak with composers, creators, performers, historians and music educators about the topics important to them, and music's betterment.
Today's guest is an international soloist, founding member of Seraph Brass, Chrysalis Chamber Players, half of the Dash Duo, a Golden Medal Global Music Award winner, the trumpet professor at Shenandoah University, and overall fantastic human being. We are so excited to welcome Mary Elizabeth Bowden to our podcast today!
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 0:53
Hi, thank you for having me.
Carrie Blosser 0:55
Thank you so much for joining us. We wanted to talk a little bit about in 2019, you commissioned Vivian Fung to write a Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and we'd love to hear a little bit about how you created this opportunity for yourself as a soloist and then also for orchestras to join your consortium and actively commission some new music.
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 1:16
It's been a dream of mine to commission a new work, a Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and so I wanted to really find a composer that I felt connected with. And the first step was finding an orchestra that would be interested in being the lead orchestra of the consortium. And I emailed my friend who is the Executive Director of the Erie Philharmonic, and just reached out and asked him if they would be interested in having me as a soloist. And they said, okay, and I just pitched the idea that I wanted to see if they would be open to the idea of leading a consortium for a new work. And it turns out that Erie Philharmonic is an orchestra that they do commissions. A lot of commissions every year and so this fit really nicely with their programming.
And so the next step was finding a composer. So I researched a lot of composers and I fell in love with Vivian Fung's Violin Concerto and I thought she would just write something completely new and different for the trumpet. And she certainly did. I premiered the work right before everything shut down in early March. And it's a work that features the E-flat trumpet, in a very virtuosic way. And also, there's a really nice flugelhorn section. And back to the E flat trumpet, kind of like a hip-hop moment before it finishes off with some very, very high virtuosic, piccolo trumpet playing. So it was quite a thrill to perform and as we were getting orchestras on board to be able to fund the cost of the piece- that began about a year out before the premiere.
And so I was working with my publicist, Leona Laurie. She created a huge list of orchestras to reach out to and just started contacting everybody that we could, and we got nine orchestras on board to support the full cost of the commission and most of those performances have been postponed to starting next fall [in 2022]. And so we're a little bit delayed with the performances, but they'll continue and just excited to get to work on the piece more and share it with the world.
Carrie Blosser 3:37
I think it's such an awesome, it really does create this, like unique experience for you and for all of these orchestras. And I think how many orchestras did you end up asking if they were interested?
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 3:49
I think we reached, we have a spreadsheet of about 800 orchestras. I think, I don't know what the response rate is for outreach. Isn't that something like a 2% response? And then that won't even be a yes. You'll get a lot of no's or just people who don't respond and that's understandable, because we're all so bombarded with emails all the time. So it really takes a lot of perseverance and organization. And just because someone didn't answer or says, no, not at this time, that does not mean no. Just keep in touch and keep contacting people. And maybe someday they'll watch a little bit more of the video, and it'll pique their interest and so I think it's important to stay in touch and not get discouraged. It's just the nature of us all trying to get each other's attention with everything that we have online.
Ashley Killam 4:43
We were also wondering what, I mean with you having a full-time performing career and full-time teaching career, how has the experience been balancing that and working out kind of the timing of things because you've pretty much got like six-jobs-in-one, between your Shenandoah teaching, Dash Duo, Chrysalis Chamber Players, Seraph Brass, and founding the Apex Trumpet Symposium that just started up.
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 5:12
Yes, so I do all the things. It's certainly been a journey since I started launching my solo career about 10 years ago. So since that time, every year is a new journey and has been completely different in so many ways. Before that I was a full-time orchestral player, and teacher as well. And with the switching careers, career paths, I still do quite a bit of orchestra playing too, when I can, which I still find that super gratifying as well. So I'm a person who thrives on variety, and change. And so this path, I felt much more at ease with being a creator, then when in my 20s, I was focused mainly on just playing a week in an orchestra every week. And I liked that, but I didn't love that and I find that that being the leader of projects and creating ideas for new commissions and touring projects, I just find a lot of joy in that.
And so every year before the teaching up at Shenandoah, especially every year was a puzzle and you fit the pieces in and you know that you might have a five-week Seraph Brass tour and then a two-week Brandenburg tour, playing principal on a Bruckner Symphony, to playing a concerto. And you just have to be, you learn what works and what doesn't work. And I think I've dealt with issues of overbooking sometimes. And so I have to be really careful that I know that if I have a Brandenburg Concerto I don't, I don't want to be doing a Seraph Brass tour right before that I've done that. And it's gone well, but I don't think I will choose to do that again for my own sanity. So you just learn what choices to make as you're putting the puzzle together with all of the scheduling and how crazy everything is, but every year does look very different.
And so by the time I got the Shenandoah Conservatory position, I had a full time career doing touring with Seraph Brass and being a soloist. And doing the various projects that I'm involved in was a full time career. And so adding Shenandoah to the mix was an interesting challenge and I just had to schedule things a bit differently and say no to some things I normally would really want to do. So it's prioritizing projects that mean the most to me. So that's been the biggest learning curve, because I definitely am someone who tries to do everything. And so I have to make sure I look at the calendar and make sure that there's some downtime, to practice more and sleep.
And then with COVID, everything is completely changed, as you know. There's just a ton of online teaching and outreach and some of it's been really great. And of course, I think we all miss performing in the way that we used to perform. And I think it will come back, so I feel pretty patient with that. Since I've just accepted this is what we're all dealing with. And just in the meantime, looking forward to setting up the stage for future performances, the next two to three years, rather than thinking about, you know, what am I doing in this present moment, you know, always looking ahead and staying motivated.
And this fall, I was talking to a friend of mine, Nathan Warner, and we were just talking about some ideas. And he said, I really want to create a trumpet program. And he was just kind of throwing out some ideas. And I've had some of those ideas too. And I, I said, well, let's do it. If you want a project to happen, I'm a great person to talk to. Aw yeah, that's not going to be too much work, that'll be great. And we launched our 8-week program last semester. And now we've just started our 10-week program. And we have a full roster of participants signed up and it's just been really great to get to know them. And also making sure that our list of guest artists is diverse and representative of the trumpet community as a whole. And so it's been really fun to just put that together with the three of us. The founders are myself, my husband, David Dash, and Nathan Warner. So it's been a really great project and it's been super inspiring to me to hear all these great participants and we've developed a community of players who are excited about Apex and they all support each other and we support them and it's just been really special to see this environment grow.
Carrie Blosser 9:51
The way you all have modeled it, it's this lovely weekend thing so even when we're out of COVID if you continue, like it's such a great addition to someone that might be in an area that can't travel to go have a lesson with you. And, you know Tom Hooton, and you know, all the other amazing artists that you have there, it just, it's a lot more cost effective and just provides more opportunity.
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 10:16
Right? It's like, Where else can you get the access to the 10 guests artists that we have in 10 weeks? But the great thing about Zoom, I think that things like this didn't, there were a few things like this, but not to this extreme. So that's been kind of cool to connect with, with more people. And we've been brainstorming, having this in person someday. But I think we'll always keep the online component as well. So it's gonna be fun to see what the possibilities are with this organization,
Carrie Blosser 10:48
Talking with some of the projects that you have created and the career that you've built, pretty much from the ground up without much of a user manual, when you started, what advice would you give to other musicians, and then anything that you wish you would have known when you started either your trumpet career or your soloistic career?
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 11:08
I think goal setting is really important and I find that people when they have a goal, that's huge, it seems overwhelming. And it's easy just to stare at that goal and not know where to start. I've certainly been there myself. But I've become better at creating those first steps, the starting steps. And it might seem like you're never going to reach that goal, but you have to make sure that you're really breaking down the steps of a long term goal or project that you have, and not trying to do it all at once. And so I find that that's how I built my career with with Seraph Brass, creating that from the ground up. And building the tours each year and letting the group grow organically in a direction. And the solo career has been the same. Sometimes I don't know what to expect in five years, like just keep trying new ideas and just pursuing music that I love.
And yeah, I think that's my advice is to to make sure that if you have a big dream, or if it's a little goal, just make sure that you're setting deadlines for yourself and clear, a clear outline of goals and not trying to do everything in one day. Because I feel like that's when procrastination can set in or you you could tend to think about it every day, but then not act. So with the with the consortium, I had a clear set of goals, I definitely had colleagues tell me, there's no way you're going to get eight orchestras to pay that much money for this piece. And I did it, I was a little worried, but I also believed that I could do it. And because I had a clear, a clear path forward, you know, contacting all of these orchestras, and just making sure that we reached our goal.
And I guess if I had advice to myself, and it's an interesting question, to think about, but I'd like to think that all the failures and mistakes that I made along the way, that's who shapes who I am today. And I think that's important for young people to remember, it might seem very devastating that you didn't win a competition, or you had a setback of some sort. But that's what's going to make you an interesting person and shape your voice. And I think we need those experiences, to thrive and to overcome struggle and just learn how to be a more versatile person, if that makes sense. So I remind myself with my heavy orchestral background, and going to the Curtis Institute of Music, and pursuing that path for a while has shaped how I play the trumpet. And now it's made me more of a chameleon, that I still love to sit in and play principal or any part in the orchestra. And I can do a great job doing that and then also switch gears into the soloist spot, you know, you can kind of crossover more sound colors, and yeah, I just I enjoy that. That variety. So yes, I started a solo path 10 years, or more later than most folks who are deciding to become a soloist, but it's I think it's worked out great and I'm just looking forward to making the next set of goals and keeping the path going forward.
Ashley Killam 14:35
That's awesome. Do you have any exciting projects, kind of in the works or things you want to promote? Either right now or, you know, for later in 2021 when things hopefully open back up?
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 14:50
Well, hopefully next season, I'm going to be performing the Vivian Fung Concerto and continuing those performances and also I'm touring with the Cassia Ensemble, which is a group based in Pittsburgh. They recorded my last album with me, so we were supposed to do a pretty long month and a half long tour this winter, it's been moved to 2022. So I'm excited that that will still happen. I'm trying to think of what else there's a couple of other works commissions in progress.
One of them is another Concerto by Gina Moran. That's probably postponed for another year or two, but you'll see that coming out. And also, I'm supposed to be performing this Bullock Concerto with the Los Vegas Phil, hopefully next season or the season after, gonna have to wait and see what the bookings look like. But I'm excited to announce that David Dash, my husband and I, have commissioned a new work by Tyson Davis. He is a UNCSA [University of North Carolina School of the Arts] alumni and he's currently a Julliard student. And he's writing a work for two trumpets and string quartet and he'll also have a version for two trumpets and string orchestra. So that will be written next spring, so I'm excited to have another work in the mix.
And also Seraph Brass is commissioning Kathryn Salfelder to write a piece for brass quintet and orchestra or wind ensemble. And so we are building that consortium right now. And right now we're making a list of composers to research because we want to also put our next commission in the works for brass quintet. So we're researching composers, we just hopped on in a consortium led by Axiom Brass by Kevin Day so we joined that Consortium. So that's, that's exciting as well. And I think those are all the consortiums in the works right now.
I am commissioning some unaccompanied works for trumpet by underrepresented composers. And the first one that I'm working on right now is an unaccompanied work by Reena Esmail who's one of my favorite new composers. And so I'm excited to work with her on that and start launching those works, too.
Carrie Blosser 17:05
So are there any resources that you would like to get out to either other trumpet players or entrepreneurs or people who are interested in starting either a small group or following a similar path that you have done?
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 17:17
I think the best way to get information I mean, there's so many great podcasts. First of all, I like listening to other people's stories. I love The Entrepreneurial Musician Podcast, and The Brass Junkies, led by Andrew Hitz, and Lance [LaDuke]. That's a great resource. When I was forming Seraph Brass and my solo career, I got most of my advice from mentors and colleagues just talking to them one-on-one and picking their brain. When I started Seraph Brass, I was lucky to chat with my friend Jeff Conner, Boston Brass, and Jose Sibaja, and pick their brains and ask them how the group runs. And they were very generous with what their advice also Dorival [Puccini, Jr,] from Axiom [Brass Quintet], and just asking colleagues, "How did you do this? How did you start this?" and getting ideas from other people I think is the best way that I learned earlier, when I first started everything. And then when I started the solo career, talking to my mentors then and other soloists. And trying to figure out how that works.
I also had an artistic admin job when I started my solo career doing artistic administration for the Richmond Symphony. Because I'm also still third trumpet there all these years, and I had that job for a few years and part of my job was communicating with artists, managers, and helping with the contract negotiations and looking at a lot of soulless websites. And that really opened my eyes to see, okay, I'm in a position of doing some research for the organization.
What appeals to my eye and that really opened my eyes to how I can market myself as a soloist and how communication with artists managers works as well and how that works. And again, that communication is really important to how you reach out to presenters when you're booking concert series. So when I'm booking tours for myself and Cassia versus Seraph Brass versus myself as a soloist You know, I'm pretty comfortable with communicating with people on my own. I used to have artists manager, a solo manager until last year, when I decided that I wanted to venture out on the consortium on my own. So that was I had management and then decided not to have it. And Seraph Brass has two managers that help us and so it's it's an interesting, it was interesting to see that world to know how to negotiate a lot of things. Instead of just being an artist who just knows how to play the trumpet, really knowing the ropes of how presenters think and how orchestras think with their programming to. It's nice to see, to be able to see the both sides of the administrative world of music plus the performer side.
Ashley Killam 20:02
And our last question, which we're asking everyone is what's on your music stand this week? And how are you diversifying your stand?
Mary Elizabeth Bowden 20:10
So I just got the first draft of Reena Esmail's unaccompanied piece. And she wrote for E-flat trumpet. So I've been visiting that and working through that and that's how I'm diversifying my stand this week. So I'm excited to work with her on the piece and hopefully make a recording. It's kind of a, probably a long term project, I want to collect these unaccompanied pieces. And I'm thinking about making an album of it or book. I'm just gonna see where it goes and picking a few composers to write short, miniature pieces for the trumpet, because I'm also always looking for music that I can play at masterclasses and I tend to play Syrinx a lot on those and it would just be awesome to have more things to choose from. And of course, it's been really awesome to see organizations like yours come up and also the Next Generation Trumpet Competition. I bought that book and that's been really cool to read through those. So it's it's been really need to bring some new works to light and all the work that you've both done is really great. And Ashley, I know you have a huge resource of pieces. I always send my students to various links for them to check out new pieces. So we're not, you know, I'm like you don't have to play just standard rep. Let's diversify our stands!
Carrie Blosser 21:34
Links to Mary's website, plus the groups and projects she's part of are listed in the podcast description.
Ashley Killam 21:49
Thank you so much for listening to Diversify the Stand. I am Ashley.
Carrie Blosser 21:54
And I'm Carrie. If you'd like to support us and our projects, check out our Patreon www.patreon.com/diversify_the_stand. Also the link is in our podcast description.
Ashley Killam 22:09
And a huge thank you to Trevor Weston and Whitney George for allowing us to use their compositions in our podcast. The musical introduction is Trevor's trumpet duet Fanfare for Changes, and the ending music is Whitney's Incantations for trumpet and piano. Both composer's websites are also listed in the description.
Carrie Blosser 22:28
Until next time, what's on your stand?