James McGowan

James McGowan is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer, arranger, educator, and music theorist equally at home in many genres of music. With degrees in Music Theory from the Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester (PhD 2005) and University of North Texas (M.M. 1995), and degrees in Composition from the University of Toronto (M.Mus 1993, B.Mus 1992), Dr. McGowan is an Associate Professor of Music at Carleton University. He also holds an A.R.C.T. in Piano Performance (First Class Honours) from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto). He further received specialized training with Certificates in Kinàmàgawin Indigenous Learning (Carleton), Course Design Fundamentals (Carleton), and Fellow of the Mannes Institute for the Advanced Study of Music Theory—"Jazz Meets Pop” (Rochester, New York).

Dr. McGowan is a passionate educator and was honoured to serve as Carleton University Chair in Teaching Innovation in 2020–2023. In this capacity he received a grant to promote community music and arts education across the campus with his PLACE initiative and conducting research in the scholarship of teaching and learning. He has also been recognized with multiple university-wide awards for his teaching—Carleton Teaching Achievement Award (2024),  FASS Teaching Development Award (2023), CU Teaching Achievement Award (2013), CU New Faculty Teaching Award (2012), two-time recipient of Carleton Residences Favourite Faculty Award, a Raving Raven for Teaching Excellence, a CUSA Teaching Excellence Award, and McMaster University Student Union Teaching Award for Humanities. At Carleton, Dr. McGowan serves as Managing Director of the Carleton Jazz Camp and the Carleton Song-to-Stage Camp, and has taught middle-school and high-school students in the MCP (Mini-Enrichment Program). He has served as Supervisor of Performance Studies at Carleton University (2011–12, 2018–21, and 2024–), Supervisor of Ensembles, Masterclasses and Practica, and Undergraduate Supervisor.

James is an instructor and pianist at the CAMMAC Music Centre (Harrington, Québec), including in their "Rhythms of the World" Week 8 summer camp program. In 2023, he taught a course with Discovery University, in a program affiliated with the Ottawa Mission. He has been a clinician and adjudicator for different arts organizations (Junos, Kiwanis, Lions, Canadian Music Showcase, City of Ottawa Arts Grants, etc.), and given workshops for jazz ensembles, choral ensembles, jazz piano and voice, as well as introductory improvisation, choral singing, jazz piano approaches, jazz music theory, and managing performance anxiety.

Finding the hybrid space between classical, jazz, and contemporary improvisation, James has given piano performances in Canada, the United States, and Sweden, and has collaborated with ensembles including the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra, James Madison University Jazz Ensemble, and individual musicians from Jesse Stewart to Ian Tamblyn to Dong-Won Kim to Jamaal Amir Akbari [JustJamaal ThePoet], and Heidi Melton to Barbara Hannigan (who premiered his song cycle Songs of the Spirit and the Sky). He has performed frequently in the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, as well as others including the Stewart Park Festival, Merrickville's Jazz Festival, and Skylight Festival. He currently performs with Modasaurus, James McGowan Trio, Collected Strands Improvisation Quartet, Rachel Beausoleil, and others; in recent years he has released eight albums as leader or co-leader—Collected Strands Volume 2, Volume 1, Reaching Out, Reaching In, 4K, Two Intents, Over the Mountain, and Songs from the Bridge—and a number of others as a session pianist or arranger. He has three more albums set to be released in 2026.

James won Canada Council for the Arts "Concept to Realization" grants in 2022 and 2025 to support his work performing and recording programs of original compositions for classical-jazz-fusion 13-piece ensemble (James McGowan Ensemble). The JME albums, entitled Reaching In and Reaching Out received strong reviews including: "This is an excellent example of a composer thinking beyond one particular musical style and focusing on what needs to happen to convey the story that starts from within. The writing is first-class, as is the playing, and the storytelling so vivid and emotionally connected. It is not often I hear such an affecting work of art that is equally theatrical, classical, and jazz inspired.” Simon Defty, Simply Jazz Talk (UK, 2023). He is planning  to release the third JME album Threads of Fate in May 2026. 

As an award-winning composer and arranger (including First Prize PROCAN Canada-wide Young Composers Competition; Glenn Gould Composition Scholarship, UofT; John Weinzweig Composition Scholarship, UofT; Canadian University Music Society Composition Competition), James has composed in most genres including five choral cantatas, orchestral music, chamber music, songs (jazz, art songs, and singer-songwriter), and compositions for jazz ensembles, including music for his jazz-fusion quartet Modasaurus and the James McGowan Ensemble. He has had commissions by various groups including the Etobicoke School of the Arts choir and orchestra program, Alexander Singers and Players (Toronto), the Atlantic Voices Choir of Ottawa, and Carleton University Choir. His works have been performed by the Rocky Mountain Symphony (Calgary AB), Coro Vivo (Ottawa ON), and other ensembles. On September 23–26 2026, his full-length jazz-rock musical New Life will premiere at the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa. 

As a music theorist, Dr. McGowan has given dozens of presentations of his research across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He has several published articles, primarily in the field of jazz theory as well as in music pedagogy. He has developed and continues to expand specialized course packs in music theory and musicianship courses he has taught. He is currently the editor of the Jazz Theory Bibliography, an online database hosted at Carleton University. Selected publications include: "Mitigating European-Centric Bias in University Music Theory Curricula,” “‘Consonance’ in Tonal Jazz: A Critical Survey of its Semantic History,” “Psychoacoustic Foundations of Contextual Harmonic Stability in Jazz Piano Voicings,” “Riemann’s Functional Framework for Extended Jazz Harmony,” “Applying the Metaphor of Motion to Phrase Analysis and Performance of Choral Music,” in addition to his oft-cited 2005 dissertation "Dynamic Consonance in Selected Piano Performances of Tonal Jazz." Dr. McGowan is a Research Fellow and on the management team of the Research Centre for Music, Sound, and Society in Canada.

James has contributed to community music leadership over his career, directing several amateur church music programs, conducting school-age choirs, coaching school-age instrumental music ensembles, teaching musicianship for all levels of school-age programming, accompanying music theatre ensembles, leading a musical group for those living with mental illness, performing in nursing homes and palliative-care facilities, developing and teaching a course in Community Music at Carleton University, and mentoring others to develop their skill sets in community music. He also serves as a volunteer member, and former president, of the Board of Directors at Lotus Centre for Special Music Education.  

2024 Interview in Conversations with Musicians.

2018 Interview in Artsfile.

2016 Interview in Ottawa Citizen.