Jasmin Bey Cowin

Jasmin Bey Cowin, was born in Germany and received her Bachelors Degree in harp and education at the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik in Karlsruhe. She arrived in the USA on a Fulbright scholarship to study at the University of Houston. After returning to Germany she was offered a scholarship at Rice University where she concentrated on her harp and orchestral studies. Eventually she moved to New York and received her Masters Degree in Education and Doctorate in Education from Teachers College/Columbia University in New York. Dr. Cowin served as the principal harpist for the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Karlsruhe, the Houston University Symphonic Ensemble, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, as well as The New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble.

Dr. Cowin lives in New York City, where she is an active free-lance harpist, adjunct professor at Teachers College/Columbia University. In addition, she lectures extensively the history of opera and music for many prestigious institutions. Her website is www.operalectures.com

Concert Dates

  • January 13, 2013 - Jan Hus Chruch, New York City
  • February 1, 2013 - The Cornell Club, New York City

15 one-minute selections for Jasmin Bey Cowin

  • Baiao

    Seth Custer

    Seth Custer's works have recently received numerous national and international performances, and he was named the MTNA Distinguished Composer of 2010 for his saxophone quartet, Touch & Go. Custer remains active as a clinician, performer, and teacher, and is the program director for the NFMC Junior Composers Institute.

    Flutterbye is a fleeting, yet enchanting "glimpse" of an object that is forever lost. The ascending triplet gesture in the first measure is the musical material on which the rest of the piece is based.

  • Intermezzo

    Salim Dada

    Musician and composer of the national orchestra of Algeria, Salim Dada has particularly on atypical musical course, from its personality and its lived. Thus its work grows rich progressively, in the crossing of meetings and experiments bringing the spirit and the expression of the Arab and Eastern music to the thought and the technique of Western writing.

    Reflection around a single intonation pattern based on the jump of the appoggiatura of neighbor note. Arpeggiosembroidered, zigzag melodies are born. This Intermezzomeditates in a continuous variation of one melodicmotivicunity.

  • Blanco

    Marissa DiPronio

    I am a student at the University of South Florida, and I am currently on track to graduate this spring with a double concentration in music composition and piano performance. I have been playing piano for about 14 years but only began composing two years ago. I am currently living in Tampa, Florida.

    Blanco is the Spanish word for “white”; in the light spectrum, the color white is made when a combination of all colors in the spectrum are reflected off of a surface. With this piece, I attempted to create a diverse color palette in the span of just 60 seconds, beginning with the dramatic “red” and gradually winding down to the calm “violet”.

  • Cyclone

    Pat Duke

    Pat Duke is a composer/musician from Tampa, Florida. He started playing instruments at the age of 5 first starting with piano and then progressing to cello and guitar. He has since written for a variety of instruments for solo, duo, chamber, and large ensembles. His pieces have been performed nationwide.

    I have always been fascinated with hurricanes throughout my life. Cyclone emulates these tremendous storms by showing how something small and delicate can grow into a monstrous force. The piece is set around a collection of intervals that rotate throughout the piece.

  • Frost

    Aaron Fryklund

    Aaron Fryklund (b. 1984) is a vital and progressive young composer based in Dallas, Texas. Fryklund's style exhudes a dynamic energy while his music maintains a delicate balance of cerebral intelligence and unabashed passion. Fryklund's was recently honored to win "Best Score" at a prestigious film festival.

    Frost represents a single fleeting sliver of time. A single blade of grass, a leaf, a flower petal feels the sting as the dew slowly turns to frost.

  • Album Leaf for Harp Solo

    Stanley Hoffman

    Stanley M. Hoffman (b. 1959, Cleveland, Ohio) holds degrees in Music Composition from Brandeis University (Ph.D.), New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.) and Boston Conservatory (B.M.). His music is published by ECS Publishing, Oxford University Press and Fatrock Ink. He is currently Chief Editor at ECS Publishing Corporation, Framingham, Massachusetts.

    I originally called this gentle little piece nine-thirteen-twelve, the due date for submission to Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Jasmin Cowin - harp, because this calendar date inspired the musical intervals which form the basis for this work.

  • L'instable règne

    Jashiin

    Jashiin (b. 1984) is a Russian composer and artist. His work covers a wide variety of styles and media: he has produced sequenced dance tracks, acoustic improvisations, notated music in both traditional and avant-garde idioms, collections of photographs, digital artwork, works on paper, and videogame projects.

    There are two ways to perform this, one with hope, and another without it. Neither is preferable. Both are unlocked by the same key.

  • Cloud

    Pamela J. Marshall

    Pamela J. Marshall’s commissions include South Beach Chamber Ensemble, Master Singers of Lexington, MA, Green Mountain Youth Symphony, Assabet Valley Mastersingers. New music this spring: Labyrinth for horns, Examinate Variations for flute & cello, Dance of the Hoodoos for oboe, violin, cello, piano. She teaches horn and improvisation workshops around Boston. www.spindrift.com

    The music starts as if it is a slowly swaying fog bell, alternating high and low, with pauses that make you wonder if the bell will ring again. The higher-pitched music changes every time it occurs, just as clouds inexorably transform their shape.

  • Instrument de Paix

    Anthony W. Randolph

    Anthony W. Randolph, DMA, is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and electronic works. Dr. Randolph has taught on primary levels, and served as a lecturer in Composition at The Catholic University of America. Dr. Randolph currently serves as Coordinator of Theory and Composition Studies at Howard University in Washington, DC.

    Instrument de Paix, is a simple, yet profound work intended to evoke a sense of peace and rest in the listener and performer. Instrument de Paix (Instrument of Peace) refers to both the harp and performer together being catalysts for peace.

  • What Are We Waiting For?

    Alyssa Reit

    For more than 30 years Alyssa Reit has worked as an independent performer, composer and arranger. She completed her Bachelors and Master's degrees at the Juilliard School as a student of the late Marcel Grandjany. As a harpist she has performed with institutions ranging from the world renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera, to contemporary music groups and traditional Irish bands; she has played in such well known, diverse venues as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Tully Hall, BAM, the Public Theater, and the Kitchen. She worked with composer John Cage and helped organize "The Grand Harp Event" at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and "The Garden of Harps" at the Museum of Modern Art.

  • First Snowflake

    Ehsan Saboohi

    Born in Tehran, Iran, September 1981. He earned his Master degree in composition at the Art University Tehran 2009, and Bachelor in Traditional Music of Iran at the Art & Architecture University Tehran 2005. Apart of being composer, Ehsan currently is a professor in Music at the University of Applied Science and Technology Tehran since 2010.

    First Snowflake Written for solo harp and has been dedicated to Jasmin Cowin. what a pity / I was not a good host / for the first snowflake / that settled on my eyelid.

  • Lillikoi

    James Sebring

    James Sebring is a student at Central Michigan University working toward his Bachelor of Music degrees in Theory/Composition and Trumpet Performance. He has studied composition under Dr. David Gillingham and Dr. Jay Batzner. His influences vary from modern pop music to minimalism as well as electro-acoustic music.

    I wrote Lillikoi as a sort of signature piece, exemplifying my general style and influences, while keeping within the parameters of the one-minute time constraint. What resulted is a mellow, simple work that expresses my personal interests as well as shows off my favorite qualities of the instrument.

  • White horse falling asleep

    Juan Maria Solare

    Juan Maria Solare, born 1966 in Argentina, works currently in Germany as composer, pianist (contemporary & tango) and teaching at the University of Bremen and at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen. His music has been performed in five continents. Eleven CDs of different performers include at least one piece of him.

    White horse falling asleep - The harp identifies itself with the white horse, according to certain esoteric traditions (Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism). Chesterton's poem The Ballad of the White Horse might support this correspondence. Our horse is now "falling asleep", i.e. focusing into its inner world of both intense strength and subtle nobleness.

  • One Minute of Snow

    Cardamom Stern

    Cardamom Stern (b. 1981) is a composer, pianist, and performance artist living in New York City. Former student and protege of Meredith Monk, Stern has pioneered the use of "intentional silences" and echo harmonics in music with the goal of intensifying the intimate relationship between musician and audience in solo performances.

    One Minute of Snow is a piece about delicacy, building on the harp's unique acoustic characteristics to create a minute of peaceful reflection for the audience. It is designed to liberate the performer with interpretative freedom and build an emotional connection between listener and musician during the act of music-making.

  • La Danse de la Lune

    Kezia Yap

    Kezia Yap is a Sydney-based pianist and composer, currently studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of music. She enjoys are large range of music, including that of the 20th century as well as music of today, thus draws influence and inspiration from the different styles of pivotal composers of these eras.

    Many composers and painters have been captivated by the moon and sought to capture the moonlight, especially through an impressionistic lens. However this piece aims to capture its somewhat mischievous and mystical nature, focusing on the rhythms created as the light reflects off the surface of the ocean.