Artistic Director / Musical Director

Dr. Jeremy Scott Brown
Professor of Music, University of Calgary
Performance Lead, Music Division | Director, Centre for Research in the Fine Arts

Dr. Jeremy Brown is an award-winning performer, conductor, author, and educator whose career spans classical, jazz, and contemporary music. A Professor of Music at the University of Calgary, he also serves as Performance Lead of the Music Division and Director of the Centre for Research in the Fine Arts.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Brown’s excellence as an educator has been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the 2024 University of Calgary Teaching Award (Professor), the Faculty of Arts Teaching Award (2014), and the Students’ Union Teaching Excellence Award (1999), for which he was nominated again in 2017.

He was named an Ambassador of Canadian Music by the Canadian Music Centre (2008) and received the David Peterkin Award from the Alberta Band Association (2007). In 2024, he was elected an Honorary Member of the American Bandmasters’ Association, the highest distinction awarded to a wind band conductor.

Recordings and Performance

A musician of remarkable range, Dr. Brown performs as a wind band conductor, jazz and classical saxophonist, flautist, and improviser. His recent recordings have earned wide acclaim:

• Emergence (Redshift Records) – Outstanding Classical Recording of the Year, 2023 YYC Music Awards
• Intersections – Jazz Recording of the Year, 2025 YYC Music Awards
• Prevail (with the Calgary Wind Symphony) – Classical Recording of the Year, 2025 YYC Music Awards

Other notable projects include Magnitudes (with Joe Morris), Saxophone Legacy (with Jack Wilkins, #1 on !earshot Jazz Chart, 2022), Rubbing Stone (Centrediscs), Ornamentology, The Lethbridge Sessions, and Scaramouche (with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra). His solo and collaborative performances have been featured with major ensembles such as the Calgary Philharmonic, Ottawa Symphony, Red Deer Symphony, and the Calgary Jazz Orchestra.

Calgary Wind Symphony Leadership

For 25 years, Dr. Brown has served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Calgary Wind Symphony (CWS), a 60-member ensemble founded in 1955. Under his direction, the CWS has commissioned and premiered numerous Canadian works, including pieces by Jordan Nobles, Allan Bell, Daniel Pelton, and Ben Johnston-Urey.

The ensemble celebrated its Silver Anniversary in 2024 with a Yukon tour and the premiere of Where the Mountains Have No Name. The CWS has performed twice at the Mid-Europe Conference and as guest ensemble at the Edmonton Cantando Festival (2017, 2024, 2026), presenting 17 concerts in the 2024–25 season alone.

Teaching and Scholarship

At the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, Dr. Brown teaches courses in improvisation, instrumental music education, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and supervises master’s and doctoral students. His university jazz and wind ensembles have won national awards, including the Outstanding Ensemble Award at the 2013 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and multiple soloist honours at major U.S. competitions.

He is completing a forthcoming book for Routledge, New Perspectives on Jazz Patronage, the first comprehensive study of jazz patronage. His previous book, The Wind Band Music of Henry Cowell (Routledge, 2018), features definitive recordings with the Calgary Philharmonic winds. He was also the series editor and lead compiler of the Royal Conservatory of Music Saxophone Series (Frederick Harris, 2014), a multi-volume anthology that remains a cornerstone of saxophone pedagogy.

Service and Professional Involvement

Since 1983, Dr. Brown has contributed to numerous music organizations, serving with the Alberta Band Association, JazzYYC, the Canadian Music Centre, Kensington Sinfonia, and the Alberta Music Education Foundation. His memberships include CBDNA, the North American Saxophone Alliance, Phi Beta Mu, IGEB, and the Sonneck Society.

Earlier Career

Dr. Brown previously taught at Grande Prairie College, the Banff Centre, and the Mount Royal Conservatory. He has served as conductor and artistic director for national youth ensembles, including the National Youth Band of Canada (soloist, 2015; conductor, 2017) and the National Concert Band of Canada (founding director, 2002–2010).

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