The music of Boston-based composer and trumpet player, Stephen Ryan Jackson (b.1992) examines and recreates seemingly indescribable sensations. His music often draws inspiration from careful observation of everyday phenomena; stretching, distorting, and reexamining them in order to create works that avoid the concept of narrative and allow audience’s to reevaluate and find beauty in aspects of daily life that they might overlook. Jackson composes in a variety of mediums including works for orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber, and vocal music, often interweaving electronic elements with acoustic instruments. Jackson works extensively as a collaborator, working closely with soloists and chamber ensembles in order to create dialogues between composer, performer, and audience. Among these collaborators are bassist/singer Annick Odom, violist Isabella Costanza and chamber ensembles Les Deux and Catchfire Collective. In addition to his composing endeavors, Jackson is an accomplished trumpet player specializing in new works for solo trumpet and electronics.
Jackson has received commissions from The Choral Project, Hardin-Simmons Concert Band, The Ball State Concert Band and the Texas New Music Ensemble, among others. His music has been featured at New Music on the Point, Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, the University of Nebraska Lincoln Chamber Music Festival, the University Nebraska Kearney New Music Festival and has had premiers across the U.S. His current projects include collaborations with ensembles such as The Mid America Freedom Band, Catchfire Collective, as well as a chamber opera based on the 1920’s court cases between Radium Watch Dial Company versus the women workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting their watch dials.
Jackson is a recent graduate of New England Conservatory, where he received a Masters in Music Composition studying with Michael Gandolfi, Robert Cogan, Katarina Miljkovic and John Mallia. He earned his undergraduate degrees in Music Theory/Composition and Trumpet Performance from Hardin- Simmons University in May of 2016, studying composition with Dr. Bernard Scherr and Dr. Jeffrey Cottrell and trumpet with Dr. Leigh-Anne Hunsaker, Dr. Mark Wilcox and Dr. Keith Johnson.