By exploring symbols and stories from around the world, Paul Fowler’s concert music seeks to remind its listeners of the universal experiences of the human spirit and its path through time. In one work, a marimbist “narrates” the final scene from Chikamatsu’s “Love Suicides at Sonezaki,” in another, a cellist plays fantasies on jazz tunes championed by the Zazou, the youthful resistance to Nazi-occupied France. In his recent orchestral work, “Tapu’at,” Fowler takes an ancient Hopi labyrinth as his inspiration, which describes the emergence of one world - or life - into the next. He pairs this with the tremendous energy of the ensemble that commissioned the work: the New York Youth Symphony - a collection of young, emerging artists, bringing about the next world of music. Clearly, this composer is dedicated to subject matter that is as resonant with the audience as it is with the artists performing it.
In 2002, Young Concert Artist Naoko Takada commissioned “Michiyuki (from the Love Suicides at Sonezaki),” which she premiered at the Kennedy Center. Due to its closeness to Takada’s culture and its expressive use of her dramatic, physical style, “Michiyuki” has become one of her showcase works, with subsequent performances at the 92nd Street Y, Japan’s Suntory Hall, the Belgium International Marimba Festival, PASIC, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Following Takada’s stunning performance at PASIC, Fowler was commissioned by Taiwan’s Ju Percussion Group. For this work, entitled “Benzi: Chaplin,” the composer created a film from four shorts by Charlie Chaplin. The ensemble plays to the film, acting as the traditional silent film narrator, or benzi, of early 1900s Taiwan.
While playing piano with his jazz trio, The B Section, at a local club in New Mexico, Fowler met Sally Guenther, a cellist with Norway’s BIT20 Ensemble. Impressed with his performance, she asked him if he might accompany her at the piano in a recital for the proprietors of the Taos School of Music. A year later, she commissioned “La Vie Zazou,” and gave its premiere at the Borealis Festival in Bergen. Other notable performers have included the University of Minnesota Choirs, Ithaca College Women’s Chorale, Madison Festival Choir, MoreDances Contemporary Dance Company, and up-and-coming harpist Bridget Kibbey, who premiered “From Basho” at NYC’s MATA festival.
As an improviser, Fowler’s main instrument is a 1970s Rhodes that he rebuilt and modified with modern electronics. Comfortable in most forms of experimental and popular music, he performs with Taos Pueblo musician, Robert Mirabal, Santa Fe-based trio, Jetpack Rental, and has shared the stage with major jazz artists, Bruce Dunlap, Donald Walden, Rob Scheps, and Andre Wright. In 2003, Fowler released his debut album, “Photograph,” with Grammy nominee, Robbie Parrish producing. Parrish heard Fowler playing at a bed and breakfast in Taos and by the end of his stay, invited him to his home to record the album. It features Fowler at the piano, singing jazz standards and originals in a wholly raw and unconventional style.
Fowler has degrees in voice, composition, and theater from Ithaca College, and a Masters of Music in composition from the University of Michigan. He studied composition with Michael Daugherty, Susan Botti, and Greg Woodward. His music has received the First Music Award, the ASCAP Young Composer Award, the Swan Composer Award (Honorable Mention), and the Louis Smadbeck Composition Award. Fowler currently lives in Colorado.
