February 9, 2023

Interview with Vivian Fung, composer & Mary Elizabeth Bowden, trumpet

Philharmonia Northwest is excited to welcome composer Vivian Fung and trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden to the Seattle area this week for The Trumpet Shall Sound, a concert featuring the glorious tones of brass instruments and the Pacific Northwest Premiere of Fung’s Trumpet Concerto; Bowden performs as soloist on E-flat, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpets. The Concerto, written for Bowden in 2020 and co-commissioned by Philharmonia Northwest, barely received its World Premiere before a certain pandemic postponed its subsequent concert dates. It receives its long-delayed first Philharmonia Northwest performance this Sunday.

Fung and Bowden are both standout artists in their respective fields. The Canadian-born Fung is a JUNO Award-winning composer whose work has been performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, and the American String Quartet, among many other ensembles around the world; NPR hails her as “one of today’s most eclectic composers.” Bowden, a Yamaha Performing Artist and Gold Medal winner of the Global Music Awards, is praised for her “splendid, brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine) and her “pure, refined, and warm” tone (American Record Guide); her 2022-23 season includes no fewer than four world premiere concertos, including works by Clarice Assad and 2020-21 Seattle Symphony Composer-in-Residence Reena Esmail.

In anticipation of this long-awaited Premiere, Philharmonia Northwest interviewed Fung and Bowden this week about creating a new piece of music together, showing audiences new sides of the trumpet, and, of course, what their pets have been up to.

Read the full interview>>