Fowler’s childhood was occupied with performance, either on musical stages throughout Wisconsin or in skateboard competitions around the Midwest region. Before beginning college he had toured Europe with a professional choir, won an NFAA Arts Recognition Award in musical theater, and had photos in Thrasher magazine. At Ithaca College, Fowler performed leads in operas, was a soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, composed music for film and dance, and played jazz piano in venues around town. After completing his masters in composition at the University of Michigan, Fowler ended up in Taos, New Mexico, where he played jazz, conducted the community chorus, composed, and began studying contemporary recording techniques and computer based production.
By the spring of 2007, Fowler put this newfound knowledge into use, associate producing “In the Blood” for Native American artist and Grammy winner, Robert Mirabal. Presently the Mirabal band is touring with Fowler playing keyboards, singing, and improvising loops on his laptop. On the other side of the musical spectrum, in 2008, Fowler performed with the Des Moines Symphony and SymphoNYC under conductor Paul Haas, using his laptop to sample the orchestras and audiences, creating soundscapes in real time.
As a concert composer, Fowler is dedicated to seeking out subject matter that is as resonant with the audience as it is with the artists performing it. His orchestral work, “Tapu’at,” takes an ancient Hopi labyrinth as inspiration, describing the emergence of one world - or life - into the next. The work was commissioned by a collection of young, emerging artists, bringing about the next world of music - the New York Youth Symphony. In 2002, Young Concert Artist Naoko Takada commissioned “Michiyuki” for her Kennedy Center debut. The piece is a “narration” of the final scene from the famous puppet-play by Chikamatsu, The Love Suicides at Sonezaki. For Taiwan’s Ju jPercussion Group, Fowler created a film from four Charlie Chaplin shorts and asks the ensemble to act as the traditional silent film narrator, or benzi, of early 1900s Taiwan. Recent commissions include a new work or SymphoNYC, a choral work for the Milwaukee Choral Artists, and music for San Francisco-based Hope Mohr Dance Company.
Fowler’s music has been heard in Japan’s Suntory Hall, the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, the Belgium International Marimba Festival, the Borealis Festival of Norway, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall, among others. He’s received the First Music Award, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Louis Smadbeck Composition Award, and an Honorable Mention in the Swan Composer Award.
Printable Documents: Resume | Works List
New York Times
"The piece [Tapu’at] began with whirling woodwind figures, pulsing percussion and flickering strings. A second section had a slow, gentle flow, with liquid solo lines played beautifully by Laura Lutzke, the concertmaster. A stately passage for brass and rumbling percussion was followed by sections that were radiant, ghostly and shimmering by turns. The conclusion returned to the sounds of the introduction, restated more boldly. The colorful, attractive music was an ideal showcase for these accomplished players."
-Steve Smith, February 27, 2007.
Music Modern (Japan)
"When I saw the program, I was thrilled to imagine how a popular Japanese puppet theater classic might become a marimba solo piece. It was so dramatic that the audience really felt the story. The sound was contemporary, which gave the audience some tenseness in portraying how two lovers walked on the road to death. In addition, the acting part was extremely effective; the mallets (sticks) represented the two lovers. Fowler is a composer and also a dancer. Only Takada and Fowler together could have made this music so fascinating to everyone."
-Yukiko Hagiya, vol.10, 2003.
Taos Horsefly
"Fowler's tropes on musical styles pushed the envelope of chamber music well beyond this layperson's expectations or experience. If there was a star in the concert, apart from the ensemble and the music, it was composer and keyboardist Paul Fowler. He played the synthesizer, rattles, drums, and strummed the strings on the piano not unlike a Harpo Marx liberated from conventional expectations... Fowler manhandled that baby grand piano, running his fingers or a hand across the strings, slapping the grand from below, above, and on its sides to get the percussive sounds, while also tending to the ivories for their sweet sounds. As he turned that baby upside down and inside out, I was reminded of one of those street musicians, who use their hands on body parts and beat garbage cans while creating compositions with their urban licks."
-Bill Whaley, October 21, 2007.
Taos Hum
"'Jetpack is our dream project, which means we're sacrificing money for art,' Fowler joked." read further
-Deonne Kahler, October 12, 2006.
The Alibi
"If you really want to understand what it's like talking with the members of Jetpack Rental, just find the nearest 10 year old and give him a Red Bull, a candy bar and a twisted appreciation for music that borders on insanity." read further
-Neelam Mehta, December 1, 2005.
Fuse Ezine
"When Paul Fowler ’01 answered his phone one day in the spring of 2006, he was notified that his entry had been selected as the winner of a composition contest for the New York Youth Symphony." read further
-Michael Berlin, October 4, 2007.
New York Times
"Where the Bleecker Street Opera departed most from its forebear was in the quality of its instrumental component: the music director, Paul Haas, conducting a 15-piece chamber orchestra positioned beside the stage, offered a passionate, refined and keenly balanced account of Paul Fowler’s skillful reduction [of Montemezzi's L'amore dei Tre Re]."
-Steve Smith, October 19, 2009.
Des Moines Register
"One of the soloists at the Des Moines Symphony's concert Saturday night looked more like a member of Best Buy's Geek Squad than a musician. He sat at a table near the foot of the Civic Center stage, fussing with a laptop and an array of high-tech gadgetry. As the audience filed in, the DJ - identified in the program as "live electronica artist" Paul Fowler - pieced together an audio collage of bits of sound: coughing, chatter, chimes and airy gusts of noise. It was clear from the get-go that this concert didn't intend to play by the rules."
-Michael Morain, March 9, 2008.
Taos News
"Paul Fowler...offers up tasteful and at times, heartbreaking, keyboards."
-Deonne Kahler, May 24, 2007.
New York Times
"Among the more conventional but equally colorful offerings was Paul Fowler's harp work, "From Basho,'' played by Bridget Kibbey, which combined angular lines and brash timbres with the sweeping arpeggiation associated with the harp."
-Allan Koznin, May 14, 2003.
Taos Hum
"The band (The B-Section) can twist and tweak old standards into something half restrained and part wild. It's a modern feel influenced by popular music with back beat, funk and crafted improvs." read further
-Brandt Legg, July 29, 2004.
Produced, recorded, mixed, mastered; 6 Line Studio, CO.
Keyboards, vocals, programming. listen >
Co-writer on "Rosie" and "Shine".
Additional vocals on "Shine" recorded at 6 Line Studio, CO. listen >
Produced, recorded, mixed; 6 Line Studio, CO.
Keyboards, programming. listen >
Associate producer, keyboards, vocals, programming.
Produced by Grammy winner, Andy Byrd at Dead Horse Studios, NM. listen >
Arranged, mixed, mastered; 6 Line Studio, NM.
Keyboards. listen >
Organ on "Wait 'til Tomorrow," "New Again," and "Another January."
Produced by Omar Rane at The Tone Palace, NM. listen >
Solo piano and voice.
Produced by Robbie Parrish at Sugar Hill Studios, TX. listen >
On Compassion (Parasangate - Gone Completely Gone) (2010) 8.5’
for chamber orchestra and optional overtone singer (with the composer singing) | details >
Flection: Remembering, Forgetting (2009) 10’
for chamber orchestra and laptop | details >
Tapu’at (2006) 8’
for orchestra | details & audio >
First Music Award
Spectre Scenes (2003) 10’
for orchestra | details >
Bird Music (2009) 6'
for solo piano
also for Disklavier, synth bass, and improvised drums | details >
On Taos (2007) 15’
for improvised native flute, flute, cello, and piano | details & audio >
Benzi: Chaplin (2007) 15’
for 8 percussionists and video playback | details >
La Vie Zazou (2005) 11’
for cello | details & audio >
Balal (2004) 8’
for percussion quartet | details >
For Peace (2004) 4’
for marimba
Michiyuki: from Chikamatsu’s “Love Suicides at Sonezaki” (2002) 12’
for 5 octave marimba | details & audio >
From Basho (2002) 7’
for harp | details & audio >
Breath (2010) 15’
for SSAATTBB choir | details >
Shakespeare’s Love (2009, in progress) 15’
for SSAATTBB choir
Swan Composer Award (honarable mention) | details >
Pied Beauty (2007) 3’
for SATB choir | details & audio >
Potter’s Clay (2007) 4’
for SSA choir | details & audio >
Psalm 95 (2006) 5’
for SATB choir | details >
Make We Merry (2003) 4’
for SATB choir
Psalm XCI (1999) 15’
for SSAATTBB choir, soprano and tenor soloists
Presences: Songs from Rumi (2009, in progress) 25’
for high voice and piano
The Pouring of Light (2007) 17’
for mezzo soprano, flute, and piano | details >
Remembrance (2006) 8’
for medium high voice and piano | details >
Three Meditations (2006) 7’
for soprano, five octave marimba, and optional Tibetan singing bowl | details & audio >
Mercutio’s Queen Mab (2002) 3'
for soprano and string quartet | details >
How Sweet and Musical (2001) 3’
for soprano, tenor, and optional a-major wind chimes
Shanti (2000) 11’
for soprano, amplified piano, violoncello, 6 women’s voices, and djembe | details & audio >
ASCAP Young Composer Award.
Stagefright (2000) 15'
for soprano, conductor, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, percussion, and piano | details >
The Force that Drives the Flower (2009) – electronic music
For the dance "The Force that Drives the Flower."
Commissioned by Hope Mohr Dance, premiered at Theatre Artaud, San Francisco. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Paul Fowler.
Life's Blood (2009) – native flutes, fender rhodes, and percussion.
Music by Paul Fowler and Robert Mirabal for the film "Life's Blood," by Karen Criswell, Koncept Films. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Paul Fowler.
Coming to Troy (2002) – electronic music
For the dance "Coming to Troy," MoreDances Dance Company, choreographed by Jessica Fogel.
Elizabeth Rex (2002) – for alto flute, harp, violoncello, and tenor
Incidental music for the play "Elizabeth Rex," at the Performance Network, Ann Arbor, MI.
January First (2001) – for multilayered voice, violin, viola, electric cello, and drum kit.
Music for the film "January First," by Michael Hawkins-Burgos, Aboysintent.
8 (2001) – for string quartet
Music for the film "8" by Maureen Darosa.
Currents (1999) – for clarinet, marimba, and violoncello
Music for the dance "Currents," commissioned by Jean McGregor, Ithaca College.
Breaking Dawn (1998) – for film orchestra
Music for the film "Breaking Dawn," by Heinrich Hadding.
Runner-up for Best Student Film at the Kino Film Festival, 1999.
At Last (Warren, 2010) 4'
for chamber orchestra and laptop
Nothing Compares 2 U (Prince, 2010) 5'
for chamber orchestra
L’amore dei tre re (I. Montemezzi, 2009) 2.5 hrs
reorchestration for Bleecker Street Opera
Niño Lindo (2005) 4’
for SATB choir
De Tierra Lejana Venimos (2005)
for SATB choir
Jesus, Jesus Rest Your Head (2001) 4’
for SSATB choir
I Wonder as I Wander (2001) 4’
for SSATB choir