Classical trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden is a highly in-demand soloist, praised for her “splendid, brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine) and her “pure, refined, and warm” tone (American Record Guide). A Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, Opus Klassik Nominee, and Yamaha Performing Artist, Bowden works diligently to establish a new repertoire for the trumpet through creative, collaborative 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, on Cedille Records. Recorded with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, it is her first album to feature a full orchestra. Made up entirely of trumpet concerti by living composers, the album includes works by Clarice Assad, Tyson Davis and Vivian Fung – all commissioned by Bowden for this project – as well as previously composed concerti, performed in newly commissioned arrangements, by Reena Esmail, Sarah Kirkland Snider and James Stephenson.
During the 2023/2024 season, Bowden was featured in an impressive lineup of solo performances, including four world premiere concertos. Highlights included her debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, where she performed a program including Clarice Assad’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and Shostakovich’s Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra with pianist Henry Kramer. In another key debut, Bowden appeared as a soloist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, performing Reena Esmail’s Rosa de Sal and Assad’s Bohemian Queen. With the DuPage Symphony, she premiered a new arrangement of Gala Flagello’s Persist, newly arranged for two trumpets.
Over the course of the season, Bowden holds residencies and masterclasses at Oberlin College, Swarthmore College, the University of Michigan, Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, Central Michigan University, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, Haverford College, Grand Valley State University and the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, SC. International engagements bring Bowden to the Isla Verde Bronces International Brass Festival in Argentina, Festival de Metales del Pacifico in Mexico, and Lieksa Brass Week in Finland. Bowden’s Chrysalis Chamber Players embark on a U.S. tour of trumpet and string quartet repertoire, presented by Live On Stage, and with Seraph Brass, Bowden is recording an album of new compositions for brass quintet for Tower Grove Records.
Highlights of Bowden’s recent seasons include her debut with the Santa Fe Symphony, as well as prominent engagements with major international ensembles. During the 2022/2023 season, she performed as a soloist with the Busan Maru International Music Festival Orchestra in Korea and toured five cities in Argentina, performing Assad’s Bohemian Queen with the Shenandoah Conservatory Orchestra. She served as faculty at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in summer 2022. Prior to that, she performed in the Spanish premiere of James MacMillan’s Seraph with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. She made her Turkish debut with the Izmir State Symphonic Orchestra. Over recent seasons, Bowden has performed works including Vivian Fung’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (with the Philharmonia Northwest, Seattle), Anthony DiLorenzo’s Chimera: Concerto for Brass Quintet and Wind Ensemble (with the U.S. Army "Pershing's Own"), and Tyson Davis's Veiled Light (with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, North Carolina).
Bowden has performed as a soloist across the U.S., appearing with ensembles including the Erie Philharmonic, Chautauqua Symphony, Waynesboro Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Peninsula Symphony (California), Chameleon Arts Ensemble (Boston), Springfield Symphony (in both Missouri and Ohio), Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, and San Juan Symphony, and at Montana’s Big Sky Festival. In 2019, she made her German debut in Eisenachat the Wartburg Castle, and her French debut at the Château de Courances, both through the World and European Brass Association. She made her Russian debut with a performance in Sochi with famed trumpeter Otto Sauter’s handpicked “10 of the Best” trumpet soloists from around the world. Other international solo engagements have brought her to China’s Hunan Symphony Orchestra, Croatian Army Wind Band at the Velika Gorica Brass Festival, Lieksa Brass Week in Finland and The Banff Center in Canada, as well as residencies in Courances, France, and both Guadalajara and Cancun, Mexico. Bowden has collaborated in chamber music programs at the Marlboro Music Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival, the Banff Centre, and the Sydney Opera House (under the baton of Håkan Hardenberger).
Bowden has released two acclaimed solo recordings on Summit Records: her debut album, Radiance (featuring new American works), and her second solo album, Rêverie, with the Kassia Ensemble. Rêverie was featured as one of the Top Albums of the Year for the Global Music Awards and on Textura Magazine’s Top Ten Classical Albums of the Year.
Bowden’s many creative projects include her work as a founding member and artistic leader of both Seraph Brass and the Chrysalis Chamber Players. Seraph Brass, an ensemble of America’s top female brass players that was awarded the 2019 American Prize in Chamber Music, has performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference, Busan Maru Music Festival, the International Women’s Brass Conference, Brevard Music Center, Tafalla Brass Week in Spain, and Lieksa Brass Week. The group’s debut album, Asteria, released on Summit Records, won the Silver Medal Global Music Award. Members of the ensemble also performed on Adele’s 2016 North American tour.
Further accolades include the Gold Medal Global Music Award, First Prize of the International Women’s Brass Conference Trumpet Competition, Second Prize of the 2019 American Prize in Instrumental Performance, and a nomination for the Opus Klassik awards in 2020. An engaging orchestral musician, she is currently Principal Trumpet of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra and a member of the Iris Collective. She previously held a position with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and served as Principal Trumpet of the Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, Daejeon Philharmonic in Korea, Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, and Seraphic Fire’s Firebird Chamber Orchestra.
Bowdenn earned her Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with David Bilger, then principal trumpeter of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She earned her Master of Music degree in 2006 from the Yale School of Music, where she studied on a full scholarship with trumpeter Allan Dean. Bowden is currently Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Shenandoah Conservatory.
Learn more at www.maryelizabethbowden.com.
