Biography

Jacob Bowman is an artistically refined musician whose multi-faceted career displays him as a versatile, international performer, inventive composer, and devoted educator.

A native Ohioan, Jacob now serves as the Graduate Associate of Jazz at Baylor University, in Waco, TX, where he is currently pursuing his Master’s in Saxophone Performance, under the tutelage of Dr. Michael Jacobson. He has also acted as the Graduate Associate of Saxophone, during which he taught saxophone lessons to secondary students as well as non-music majors. Jacob also maintains a private studio of students in the Waco area.

Prior to his position at Baylor, Jacob earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from Lee University in Cleveland, TN. While there, he studied composition with Dr. David R. Holsinger and Dr. John Wykoff, and studied both classical and jazz saxophone with Clint Schmitt and Alan Wyatt.

Mr. Bowman is an international performer, having performed in venues across three different continents. Most notable are a tour across Greece with the Lee University Symphonic Band in 2022 and performances in the city of São Paulo, Brazil with the Baylor University Jazz Ensemble in 2024. He has performed with a number of other impressive ensembles including the Baylor University Wind Ensemble, the Baylor University Symphonic Band, the Lee University Wind Ensemble, Lee University Jazz Ensemble, and as a collaborating instrumentalist with the Lee University Chorale. Other collaborations include performances with Miguel Zenón, John LaBarbera, and Vince DiMartino.

No stranger to solo performance, Jacob has performed a variety of works for saxophone by recognizable composers including Takashi Yoshimatsu, Henri Tomasi, Barry Cockcroft, Alexander Glazunov, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. His musical talent is lauded by his peers and colleagues, having been a two-time recipient of the Wood Award for Outstanding Musical Achievement from the Lee University Symphonic Band, and his performance of Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone received an honorable mention in the 2022 Lee University Concerto Competition.

Equally at home as a composer, Jacob prides himself on creating accessible works of music in a multitude of styles that evoke powerful emotions and recount distant memories through the sonic medium. In 2022, he was commissioned by flutist Laurie Alltop to compose a duet for flute and tuba, which he entitled Last Walk Home; a piece recently re-recorded and uploaded to Miss Alltop’s website. His string quartet, Quartet For Young Love, was premiered in March, 2023 at the Lee University Composer’s Forum concert and received a standing ovation. Current compositional projects include a third-stream brass quintet and a commission for a third-stream piano quintet, which will be premiered in Spring 2025.

When not nose-deep in the world of music, Jacob enjoys volunteering at the Shepherd’s Heart food drive the last Saturday of each month with his home church of Harris Creek Baptist Church. Jacob also spends his restful moments rock-climbing, bouldering, biking, and hosting board game nights with his friends.