Artistic Director / Musical Director

With 30 years in the Calgary music community, Dr. Brown brings considerable knowledge and experience to guide the CWSJeremy Brown is a renowned Canadian saxophonist, flutist, woodwind doubler, teacher, author, composer and conductor.  He is Professor of Music and the former Head of the Music Department at the University of Calgary (1990-present). He has been both an artist-in-residence and a visiting lecturer at the Banff Centre.  He was invited as saxophone soloist with the National Youth Band of Canada in 2015 and again as conductor/artistic director in 2017, an unprecedented double invitation. Regarded as an unusually versatile musician, he currently performs as a woodwind doubler in professional theatre, directs and performs with jazz ensembles, conducts a semi-professional wind band and has his own new music ensembles and small jazz groups. He is also an improviser of both free music and jazz and is a composer in an eclectic mix of styles.

He is the author and conductor of the inaugural recording of the band works of Henry Cowell with the winds of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in his book, The Wind Band Music of Henry Dixon Cowell (Taylor and Francis Books, 2018).

His tenor saxophone recording of Wayfaring by Nova Pon was nominated the Outstanding Classical composition of 2015 by the Western Canadian Music Awards. In 2014 he was awarded the inaugural University of Calgary Faculty of Arts Teaching Award.  In 2010, his solo recording of Canadian saxophone music, “Rubbing Stone”, was nominated outstanding classical record of the year, again by the Western Canadian Music Awards. In 2009 he was conferred the title “Canadian Music Ambassador” by the Canadian Music Centre for his work commission and performing music by Canadian composers, with now more than fifty works commissioned.  In 2008, he was named an “Innovator of the University of Calgary” for his community outreach with the Salvation Army, and in 2007 was awarded the David Peterkin Award for his contribution to music education in Alberta by the Alberta Band Association.  In 1999 he was awarded the University of Calgary Student’s Union Teaching Award for the Faculty of Fine Arts.

As a university teacher, his undergraduate and graduate students have won numerous national and international awards, scholarships and recognition.  His university ensembles have been widely recognized for original programming and performing excellence; most recently his U of C Jazz Orchestra won the Outstanding Ensemble Award at the 2013 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and ten outstanding soloist awards at the 2014 Elmhurst Jazz Festival, Chicago, Illinois and numerous soloist awards at the 2018 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.

He has recorded numerous records, including Scaramouche with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (2003, CBC records), In the Company of My Soul (2003, Arktos Label), Ornamentology (lightblue records), Rubbing Stone (2010, Centredisc Label), The Lethbridge Sessions (2014, Centredisc Label), Music for Soup (2015), and Verismo Jazz Quintet (2005).  Most recently he recorded 60 minutes of free improvisation with renowned guitarist Joseph Morris, a Killam Visiting Scholar.

As a saxophone soloist he has appeared with many bands and orchestras including the Washington-Idaho Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Red Deer Symphony, Festival Orchestra of the 2003 World Saxophone Congress (Minneapolis), the Okanogan Symphony Orchestra, Kensington Sinfonia, the Calgary Civic Symphony, Calgary Youth Orchestra, and the Ottawa Symphony.  He is also lead tenor saxophonist with the Calgary Jazz Orchestra and regularly performs with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as a jazz and classical soloist.

He is the founding artistic director of the Rubbing Stone Ensemble and the Jeremy Brown Collective, new music ensembles based in Calgary. He is the former conductor and founding artistic director of the National Concert Band of Canada (2002-2010).  He is the artistic director and conductor of the Calgary Wind Symphony for 22 years, a 60-member wind band founded in 1955.  The CWS performs four major concerts a year and has commissioned and premiered numerous new works for wind band, including the Canadian premiere of Slipstream by Juno-award winning composer Jordan Nobles. In 2003, he co-founded Verismo, a Calgary jazz quintet whose inaugural recording garnered great critical acclaim and subsequently performed at the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival.

Dr. Brown has written numerous pedagogical articles and in addition to The Wind Band Music of Henry Cowell.  He was co-compiler and series editor of the inaugural Royal Conservatory of Music Saxophone Series (2014).  This groundbreaking saxophone anthology includes graded repertoire, etudes, technical studies and orchestral excerpts, the first such resource of its kind.

In 2009, Dr. Brown recorded “Ornamentology” with pianist, Su Jeon. You can find the full recording on Spotify. 

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