Ellen Rowe is a jazz composer and pianist. She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of The Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation, University of Michigan. She graduated from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Rayburn and Bill Dobbins. Before her appointment in Michigan she was Director of Jazz Studies at University of Connecticut. Ms. Rowe was voted Best Acoustic Jazz by Hartford, CT Advocate readers. She has also performed in concert series across the U.S. and on tours in Germany, Holland and Ireland. She is also a clinician and has presented master classes and workshops at the Melbourne Conservatory, Hochshule fur Musik, Cologne, and Royal Academy of Music, London. In addition, she has been a regular guest artist at many festivals and universities across the country. She is also a sought-after sideman and has performed with many jazz musicians, including Kenny Wheeler (with her own quartet), Tim Ries, Tom Harrell (with Tom Harrell), Ingrid Jensen and Steve Turre). Marian McPartland has featured her on “Piano Jazz”, a segment of National Public Radio’s “Piano Jazz”, twice, most recently March 2003. Sylvan Way ((2000) and Denali Pass (2006), were both highly acclaimed and received considerable airplay. In the fall 2009, her latest CD Wishing well will be available. Her compositions and arrangements are performed by many jazz ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including the Village Vanguard Orchestra and BBC Jazz Orchestra, U.S. Navy Commanders, Berlin NDR Radio Jazz Orchestras (Berlin), London Symphony, DIVA and the Perth Jazz Orchestra. You can hear many of these works on the recently released CD’s Leave It To Diva (The Perth Jazz Orchestra), Bingo (The Bird of Paradise Orchestra), and I Believe in You (DIVA). She has recently been a composer-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Sierra Music Publications currently publishes her big band compositions. Rowe was selected to lead the MENC All-Eastern, All-Northwest Jazz Ensembles and All-State Jazz Ensembles across the country. She has also been invited as a clinician at the Music Educators National Conference Eastern Division Convention as well as the International Association of Jazz Educators Convention. Recently, her quartet performed at the IAJE Conference in Long Beach (California) and the 2009 Detroit International Jazz Festival.
