Hello! My name is Jennifer Bewerse, a performing artist (mostly on cello) whose performance work approaches the concert framework as its own medium. I'm endlessly fascinated by the discourse created when pieces of music are thoughtfully juxtaposed, and how exploring different artistic answers to the same question can illuminate interesting complexities instead of straightforward solutions.
For me, real satisfaction comes from coordinating something rich and complex, something that listeners can dig their ears into. By putting different composers, compositions, and performance techniques in conversation with the social structures of a concert, I explore questions like “can sound be sculptural?” or “how can our bodies be musical?” Through this exploration, the concert framework transforms from a convenient structure for listening into an opening for questioning broader experiences.
Jennifer Bewerse is an award-winning cellist and specialist in contemporary music described by WhoteNote as “[drawing] from her instrument every possible sound short of a human voice." As a result, she has premiered over 100 works including Caroline Miller’s Vessel (2014), Peter Ablinger’s WEISS / WEISSLICH 17k: Violoncello und Rauschen (2015), Carolyn Chen’s other forests (2016), Celeste Oram’s Sanz Cuer / Amis, dolens / Dame, par vous (2017), Laura Steenberge’s concert-length work, Byzantine Rites (2018), and Johanna Beyer’s String Quartet IV (2019). Other composers she has had the privilege to work with include Patricia Alessandrini, Laurence Crane, Chaya Czernowin, Anthony Davis, Jonathan Harvey, Lei Liang, Michael Pisaro, Gunther Schuller, Kunsu Shim, Gerhard Stäbler, Augusta Read Thomas, David Del Tredici, Chinary Ung, and Christian Wolff.
Jennifer has performed as a guest soloist for the wasteLAnd Concert Series, Robert Helps Festival and International Composition Competition, Without Walls Festival, and Carlsbad Music Festival; as a guest Teaching Artist for the Music from Salem: Cello Seminar; in concerts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, REDCAT, the Center for New Music, Monday Evening Concerts, Tuesdays at Monk Space, Equilibrium Concert Series, People Inside Electronics Concert Series, University of Montana Faculty and Guest Artist Series, Laguna Beach Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival: Composer’s Symposium, and Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency; as a guest performer and presenter for the New Music Gathering and Eureka! Musical Minds Conference; and was the 2010 Performance Prizewinner at the soundSCAPE festival in Italy. Her work can be seen and heard on Ugly Duckling Presse, Navona Records, Blue Griffin Recording, and Naxos.
Jennifer is an enthusiastic chamber musician and is currently the cellist of Southland Ensemble – an experimental music ensemble sponsored by the Aaron Copland Fund and described by the Los Angeles Times as “entrancing” – and of Diagenesis Duo with vocalist Heather Barnes. Diagenesis Duo’s concert work has been awarded a Myrna Loy Center Grants to Artists Award and Earle Brown Music Foundation Grant, and their NewSonics Music Workshop for Kids has been the recipient of a University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Grant and a New Music USA Project Grant. In 2016 they collaborated with the Holter Museum and Cohesion Dance Project to create the Helena InterArts Summer Workshop, an interdisciplinary arts program for kids awarded a Montana Arts Council Artists in Schools and Communities Grant. Recently, they released their debut album, Hands and Lips of Wind, featuring three premiere recordings of works for cello and soprano, which was described by Sequenza 21 as “a radiant combination of text, music and performance, brilliantly realized and masterfully recorded.”
Jennifer is a sought after collaborator and has been a guest performer with wild Up, Calithumpian Consort, Synchromy, Experimental Music Yearbook, now hear Ensemble, Juventas, Quartet Nouveau, Boston Public Quartet, Fireworks Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra, and Ellen Fullman. Her current collaboration with Rachel Beetz, Autoduplicity, has performed at Boston Court, ArtShare Los Angeles, Mor York Gallery as part of DogStar Festival and wasteLAnd Concerts, and at Mengi (Reykjavik, Iceland) with funding through a Project Grant from UC San Diego’s Dean of Humanities. In 2016, they were in residence at the Women’s International Study Center to create a new work with composer Celeste Oram.
A native of Florida, Jennifer received her Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from the University of South Florida, her Master of Music from The Boston Conservatory, and her Doctorate in Contemporary Performance at the University of California in San Diego with a full scholarship. Her principal teachers include Joan Markstein, Scott Kluksdahl, Charles Curtis, and Rhonda Rider.
For me, real satisfaction comes from coordinating something rich and complex, something that listeners can dig their ears into. By putting different composers, compositions, and performance techniques in conversation with the social structures of a concert, I explore questions like “can sound be sculptural?” or “how can our bodies be musical?” Through this exploration, the concert framework transforms from a convenient structure for listening into an opening for questioning broader experiences.
Now for the third person bit:
Jennifer Bewerse is an award-winning cellist and specialist in contemporary music described by WhoteNote as “[drawing] from her instrument every possible sound short of a human voice." As a result, she has premiered over 100 works including Caroline Miller’s Vessel (2014), Peter Ablinger’s WEISS / WEISSLICH 17k: Violoncello und Rauschen (2015), Carolyn Chen’s other forests (2016), Celeste Oram’s Sanz Cuer / Amis, dolens / Dame, par vous (2017), Laura Steenberge’s concert-length work, Byzantine Rites (2018), and Johanna Beyer’s String Quartet IV (2019). Other composers she has had the privilege to work with include Patricia Alessandrini, Laurence Crane, Chaya Czernowin, Anthony Davis, Jonathan Harvey, Lei Liang, Michael Pisaro, Gunther Schuller, Kunsu Shim, Gerhard Stäbler, Augusta Read Thomas, David Del Tredici, Chinary Ung, and Christian Wolff.
Jennifer has performed as a guest soloist for the wasteLAnd Concert Series, Robert Helps Festival and International Composition Competition, Without Walls Festival, and Carlsbad Music Festival; as a guest Teaching Artist for the Music from Salem: Cello Seminar; in concerts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, REDCAT, the Center for New Music, Monday Evening Concerts, Tuesdays at Monk Space, Equilibrium Concert Series, People Inside Electronics Concert Series, University of Montana Faculty and Guest Artist Series, Laguna Beach Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival: Composer’s Symposium, and Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency; as a guest performer and presenter for the New Music Gathering and Eureka! Musical Minds Conference; and was the 2010 Performance Prizewinner at the soundSCAPE festival in Italy. Her work can be seen and heard on Ugly Duckling Presse, Navona Records, Blue Griffin Recording, and Naxos.
Jennifer is an enthusiastic chamber musician and is currently the cellist of Southland Ensemble – an experimental music ensemble sponsored by the Aaron Copland Fund and described by the Los Angeles Times as “entrancing” – and of Diagenesis Duo with vocalist Heather Barnes. Diagenesis Duo’s concert work has been awarded a Myrna Loy Center Grants to Artists Award and Earle Brown Music Foundation Grant, and their NewSonics Music Workshop for Kids has been the recipient of a University of California Institute for Research in the Arts Grant and a New Music USA Project Grant. In 2016 they collaborated with the Holter Museum and Cohesion Dance Project to create the Helena InterArts Summer Workshop, an interdisciplinary arts program for kids awarded a Montana Arts Council Artists in Schools and Communities Grant. Recently, they released their debut album, Hands and Lips of Wind, featuring three premiere recordings of works for cello and soprano, which was described by Sequenza 21 as “a radiant combination of text, music and performance, brilliantly realized and masterfully recorded.”
Jennifer is a sought after collaborator and has been a guest performer with wild Up, Calithumpian Consort, Synchromy, Experimental Music Yearbook, now hear Ensemble, Juventas, Quartet Nouveau, Boston Public Quartet, Fireworks Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra, and Ellen Fullman. Her current collaboration with Rachel Beetz, Autoduplicity, has performed at Boston Court, ArtShare Los Angeles, Mor York Gallery as part of DogStar Festival and wasteLAnd Concerts, and at Mengi (Reykjavik, Iceland) with funding through a Project Grant from UC San Diego’s Dean of Humanities. In 2016, they were in residence at the Women’s International Study Center to create a new work with composer Celeste Oram.
A native of Florida, Jennifer received her Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from the University of South Florida, her Master of Music from The Boston Conservatory, and her Doctorate in Contemporary Performance at the University of California in San Diego with a full scholarship. Her principal teachers include Joan Markstein, Scott Kluksdahl, Charles Curtis, and Rhonda Rider.
Download long and short versions of Jennifer's bio here
For press images, download Jennifer's EPK here
For press images, download Jennifer's EPK here
"Bewerse draws from her instrument every
possible sound short of a human voice...
[she] pushes the envelope, vaulting and
diving up and down the registers of the
cello" Raul da Gama, WhoteNote
possible sound short of a human voice...
[she] pushes the envelope, vaulting and
diving up and down the registers of the
cello" Raul da Gama, WhoteNote
"The young players treated the anarchic Fluxus works from the early '60s with an encour-
aging degree of genuine understanding
and captivating deadpan humor ... The
evening was entrancing and touching."
Mark Swed, LA Times
aging degree of genuine understanding
and captivating deadpan humor ... The
evening was entrancing and touching."
Mark Swed, LA Times
"In Saariaho’s Cendres, flute, cello, and
piano churned up an undulating sea of
keening and growling swells."
Matthew Guerrieri, Boston Globe
piano churned up an undulating sea of
keening and growling swells."
Matthew Guerrieri, Boston Globe
"I immediately grew fond of her thoughtful approach to performing music new and old ... I've looked to Jen as a model of the modern cellist: she is a brilliant performer of the music of the classical and contemporary eras; she balances a
love of performing with solid education
philosophies; and she is an out-of-the-
box thinker in all aspects of life." Justin
Dougherty, Cello Blog
love of performing with solid education
philosophies; and she is an out-of-the-
box thinker in all aspects of life." Justin
Dougherty, Cello Blog
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