Proposal for Consortium Commission
Acclaimed trumpet soloist Mary Elizabeth Bowden and GRAMMY®-winning composer Jeff Scott team up for a historic commissioning project.
I am thrilled to collaborate with 2024 GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Jeff Scott on a new concerto project. As the former founding French hornist of internationally acclaimed wind quintet Imani Winds, Jeff brings his immense experience as a performer and innovator who has himself commissioned and premiered countless contemporary works.
Jeff's new concerto reimagines the Greek goddess of wisdom and war as a modern mediator: a woman of clarity and conviction, stepping into the breach between opposing forces not to conquer, but to reconcile.
In Athena, the trumpet does not merely sing—it listens, pleads, warns, and ultimately leads.
—Mary Elizabeth Bowden
Consortium Period: 2026/27, 2027/28 seasons
Instrumentation: 2,2,2,2; 4,2,3,1; timpani, percussion, strings
Duration: 20 minutes
Commission Fee: $20,000 total (includes engraving); seeking 8-12 partners including lead commissioner TBD
Premiere Performance Rights Exclusively for Consortium: through August 2028
World Premiere: TBD
Athena, Trumpet Concerto for Mary Elizabeth Bowden by Jeffrey Scott
In Athena, the trumpet does not merely sing—it listens, pleads, warns, and ultimately leads. Commissioned by Mary Elizabeth Bowden, this concerto reimagines the Greek goddess of wisdom and war as a modern mediator: a woman of clarity and conviction, stepping into the breach between opposing forces not to conquer, but to reconcile.
The music does not name the conflict. It does not point fingers. Instead, it breathes in the dust of ancient cities and exhales a vision of peace. Melodic fragments—some drawn from lullabies, others from national hymns—float through the orchestral fabric like memories half-remembered. A child’s song (Nami Nami) hums beneath the surface, fragile and persistent. Echoes of anthems—never shouted, only whispered—glimpse the identities of those at odds, without ever declaring them.
Two musical “scenes” depict the chilling ritual of roof knocking: a percussive warning before destruction, a moment suspended between violence and mercy. Elsewhere, cowbells and chimes shimmer through the texture, evoking the midday call to prayer—not as a literal transcription, but as a reverent abstraction. These sounds, both sacred and secular, remind us that even in the heart of conflict, there is rhythm, ritual, and the human need to reach upward.
Yet Athena is not a lament. It is a negotiation in sound, a journey from fracture to possibility. A tango pulses through establishment, where power dines while children inherit the silence. Still, the music presses forward, refusing to end in despair.
At its core, Athena is a tribute: to the idea that feminine leadership—wise, strategic, and empathetic—can guide us toward a safer world. It is also a portrait of Mary Elizabeth Bowden, whose artistry and presence inspired the work. She is Athena: fierce, luminous, and unafraid to speak truth through sound.
This is music as diplomacy. Music as witness. Music as a prayer for what might yet be.
PRAISE FOR JEFF SCOTT
“Scott’s Passion for Bach and Coltrane is a riveting and hopeful work that looks back in time into the histories of Western art music, jazz, poetry, and religious figures... But the work is powerfully forward looking: it draws on these past events with an eye on what is still to come, with a heart-full path for how to be in our new world.”
—The San Francisco Classical Voice
“As a composer. I create works that I call ‘Urban Classical Music’. My music is rooted in European traditions and informed by my African American culture. It is also unapologetically influenced by the cultural experiences of my diverse, urban environment upbringing. My mission is to broaden the scope of American music theory and composition, with the intention of introducing performers, teachers, students and audiences to the richness and value of our very own, American music.” —Jeff Scott
A native of Queens, NY, Jeff Scott started the French horn at age 14, receiving an anonymous gift scholarship to begin his private study and formal greater gift came from his first private teacher, Carolyn Clark, who taught young Jeff for free during his high school years, giving him the opportunity to study music when resources were not available. Since receiving degrees from Manhattan School of Music (’90) and SUNY @ Stony Brook (’92), Jeff has enjoyed a career as a studio, chamber and orchestral musician, performing in Broadway shows, Ballet companies, touring with various commercial artists as well as recording for film, classical music, pop music and jazz music.
Jeff’s composing credits include original works for symphonic and chamber orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles and solo works for winds, brass, strings and voice. Recent commissions include symphonic works for the Detroit Symphony, “Paradise Valley Serenade” and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, “Fanfare for The Promise of America” and Imani Winds, “Fallen Pedals for Nameless Flowers.”
In 2021 Jeff, a founding member of the acclaimed wind quintet “Imani Winds,” retired after 24 groundbreaking years of touring, recording and pedagogy. The quintet was honored with a permanent installation at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History in 2017.
Jeff is currently the Professor of Composition and Horn at the University of Buffalo.
