Bio Shorter Bios - 500 Word Bio < Back   500 Word Bio   250 Word Bio   100 Word Bio   Art Bio Jesse Stewart is an award-winning percussionist, composer, improviser, artist, instrument builder, educator, and writer. As a musician, he works primarily in the areas of jazz, new music, and free improvisation. A dynamic and inventive performer, Stewart has a remarkable ability to coax unexpected—even magical—sounds out of virtually any resonating object or material. He has performed with many internationally acclaimed musicians including George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, Bill Dixon, William Parker, Evan Parker, Carlo Actis Dato, Dominic Duval, Frank Gratkowski, Gerry Hemingway, Joe Mcphee, Gordon Monahan, Maggie Nicols, Evan Ziporyn (of the Bang on a Can All-Stars), Michael Snow, and many others. He is currently a member of the David Mott Quintet and Tallboys, a trio with virtuoso musicians Kevin Breit on guitar and Matt Brubeck on cello. He also leads his own groups and performs regularly as a soloist at festivals across the country including the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Hillside Festival, the Open Ears Festival, the Atlantic International Jazz Festival, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, the Ottawa International Blues Festival, and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Much of his creative work crosses disciplinary boundaries, exploring the links between the visual and the sonic arts. In the year 2000, for example, he was commissioned by the Guelph Jazz Festival to create a ‘jazz opera’ entitled Passages with celebrated jazz poet Paul Haines. He has made several compact disc recordings including a duo recording with pianist Ajay Heble and a quartet recording featuring violinist Jacques Israelievitch, former concert master of the Toronto Symphony. He can also be heard on the David Mott Quintet’s Eleven, a record that Wholenote magazine described as “one of the most enticing and intense recordings to emerge from Toronto’s buoyant extended-jazz scene.” In 2006, the C3R label released a solo record of Stewart’s compositions titled Music for Found Objects on which he plays objects ranging from stones to canoe paddles, from steel bowls to saw blades. Several additional solo and group recordings are forthcoming. In 1993, Stewart was named “Outstanding Young Canadian Jazz Musician” by the International Association of Jazz Educators and “Young Musician of the Year” by Jazz Report magazine. His playing has been described as “truly exciting” (Musicworks 76), “exceptional” (Cadence Oct. 2002) and “phenomenal” (Cadence Nov. 1999). In a 2002 review, Texas-based music critic Frank Rubolino described him as “...one of the finest young drummers and percussionists on the scene today” (One Final Note Summer/Fall 2002). After majoring in both visual art and in music as an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, he went on to complete two Master of Arts degrees concurrently at York University in Toronto: one in ethnomusicology and another in music composition. His composition teachers included James Tenney and David Mott. In 2008, Stewart completed doctoral level studies at the University of Guelph where he was the first recipient of the Brock Doctoral Scholarship, the university's most prestigious graduate award. He is now a professor of music composition in Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art and Culture.