COMPOSER/MUSIC DIRECTOR

Jarrad Powell is a composer, performer, and teacher. He is currently a professor in the Music Department at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where he teaches composition, world music, gamelan, tuning and temperament, and other theory-related classes. He is Director of Gamelan Pacifica and Co-Director of IETI+I ("yeti"), the Institute of Emergent Technology + Intermedia at Cornish. As Music Director and composer for Scott/Powell Performance he has created over 20 major works with choreographer and visual artist Mary Sheldon Scott.

Since the early 80’s he has directed the ensemble Gamelan Pacifica, one of the most active and adventurous gamelan ensembles in the U.S. His work also includes numerous cross-cultural collaborations, particularly with Indonesian artists, including the innovative theater pieces Visible Religion and Kali. He has studied and performed gamelan music for many years and has worked with such notable artists as K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat, Goenawan Mohamad, Tony Prabowo, Rahayu Supanggah, Didik Nini Thowok, Al. Suwardi, Peni Chandra Rini and many others.

He has also collaborated extensively with the vocalist and composer Jessika Kenney, both on projects with Gamelan Pacifica and independently. Their CD Stonehouse Songs is on the Present Sounds label. Other projects include music for three innovative short films of Robert Campbell, as well as Campbell's more recent feature-length film Pulchrior In Luce.

His work has been commissioned by The Walker Arts Center, Performing Arts Chicago, On the Boards, Music in Motion, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Myrna Loy Center/Helena Presents, the National Performance Network as well as individual performers. He has received numerous grants and awards, including NEA, Arts International, Rockefeller Foundation, Paul Allen Family Foundation, 4Culture/King County, Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs/Seattle, Artist Trust Foundation and Creative Capital Foundation. His recordings can currently be found on New World Records, Present Sounds, and Blind Stone Records. For more information visit www.jarradpowell.com.