ISB 2023 Convention Presenter — Tracy Rowell

Tracy Rowell teaches at Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music.  Formerly the Assistant Principal Bass of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, a major Canadian ensemble, Tracy is currently the principal bassist of Citymusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra.  She also performs with Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra.   A founding member of the Pantheon Ensemble, Tracy has also performed with the Cavani, St. Lawrence, Pacifica, Jupiter and Parker Quartets.

Serving on the Board of Directors for the International Society of Bassists as Education Chair, Ms. Rowell co-directed the Young Bassists Program at ISB Conventions 2019 and 2021.  She led the fundraising effort in 2019 to create the George Wellington and George Vance Scholarship Fund for young bassists.  Tracy is a founding member of the Project for All Gender Equality (PAGE).

Ms. Rowell performs and teaches at summer programs such as Bassworks, KC Bass, Milt Hinton Institute, Bass Club (UK), and she taught at George Vance’s Summer Bass Workshops.  Tracy regularly presents masterclasses for institutions such as ASTA, Peabody Conservatory, Northwestern, USC.

Tracy graduated from Rice University, studying with Paul Ellison.  She received her MMus from Boston University, studying with Edwin Barker.   Tracy has recently continued her studies with Francois Rabbath.

James Howsmon has collaborated in more than 1,000 recitals in North America, Europe, and Japan. He has performed with principal players of every major American orchestra. In recent seasons, he has played in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. (at the Kennedy Center), Philadelphia, Dallas, Montreal, and Minneapolis.

Highlights of recent seasons include performances of Stravinsky’s Les Noces with the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez; an ongoing series of the complete Mozart sonatas for piano and violin with violinist Marilyn McDonald; and several performances of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin with the prominent basso Robert Holl. He is a frequent performer on Oberlin College’s stages, having recently played the Poulenc Aubade with the Oberlin Wind Ensemble and Olivier Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cité Celeste with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Howsmon is professor of instrumental accompanying at Oberlin, where he oversees the instrumental collaborative activities of the school’s 100 piano majors. He is also on the faculty of Credo, a summer chamber music program held at Oberlin College. From 1999 to 2006, Howsmon was on the piano faculty of the Brevard Music Center. He has given guest master classes in accompanying and chamber music at, among others, the Juilliard School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Interlochen Arts Academy, Arizona State University, the University of Colorado, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Alabama.

He is married to violist Louise Zeitlin. They live in Oberlin.