Seth Andrew

Bearman

After nearly twenty years blowing the trumpet, I am a seasoned player. I am intentional about my tone, versatile and nuanced. I love to improvise, all the way down to arrangement and musical form. Every aspect of music is a stitch in a fabric of choice.

My creativity comes from a playful instinct.

The short stories and poetry I write are for page and performance, revolving around an intimate entanglement with linguistics. Language encodes our ideas and triggers a bloom of understanding in another mind.

I compose instrumental works for mixed ensembles. My music is about curating timbres and textures to reenact the beauty and whimsy of a satisfying life. I also set text, embracing the raw musicality of language.

Many other sounds occupy my head and hands: piano, banjo, FM and subtractive synthesis, acoustic guitar, ocarina, a bit of accordion. I’ve developed a rig for expressive electronic performance, to take that tactile acoustic touch and plug it into intricate, digitized sound experiments.

My primary work is on trumpet and my custom synthesizer interface. I can accompany with guitar, keyboards, and multi-instrumental parts. Solo and ensemble. I come prepared to rehearsals and shows, and of course I can read on the fly. Let’s play something unforgettable together!

Music composition is my spiritual outlet. Improvisation is at the core, steeped in music theory, and backed by decades of music education. Scores for live works, multimedia, auxilliary arrangements for studio recordings. I take pride in visually elegant engraving, and consistent part presentation.

I also innovate in experimental composition. My work with Omit/Transmit Orchestra centers on composition without the traditional notation or score: could a repeatable piece of music be found in a photo album? a recipe? a map? or a piece of literature?

I create vivacious, intuitive sound cues for other media and UI, to package your interactive works with charm. I make these with digital tools, nondeterministic systems, analog and digital synthesizers, and extended technique on acoustic instruments.

My prose style has been recognized for its musicality and sparkle. Besides short-form fiction and literary poetry, I create copy for a variety of practical formats: creative pieces, newsletters, podcasts, emails, reports, social media.

If you can’t find the sheet music or chord charts for your favorite recordings, I can transcribe it for you. Melodies, solos, lead sheets, or whole arrangements, written out in a clean and legible format.

I work with students middle school age and older (including adults), offering tutoring in music theory, composition, songwriting, arranging, improvisation, and synthesizers.

I’ve gone analog with my writing. I draft in longhand, keeping one of my fountain pens or my typewriter always at hand. I like colorful inks, and caring for my equipment. There’s always a remnant of the materials, the origins of my practice, in the words I put out.

This is in harmony with my technological skills. I’ve achieved a mind-meld with the baffling music notation software Sibelius, and have recently learned Dorico. I’m no stranger to Microsoft’s Office tools and the Google Workspace. I can present and integrate smart data with AirTable. During my work at the Old Town School Music Store, I have improved and implemented custom CRM tools and inventory managers. Familiar with DAWs like Ableton, recording software, and complex MIDI environments, I’m a fundamentally 21^st-century musician.

“[Seth Andrew’s] life is rich with possibilities—as a writer, composer, a jazz musician as both composer/arranger and performer, and many other things. Entrepreneur?!”

CHET BISCARDI – composer and educator

“[Seth Andrew is] one of the architects and leaders of this funk group, keeping folks on track, contributing material, charts, direction… I respect and appreciate [his] patience in working with, encouraging and waiting on folks to step up. [He] is simply a driving force in the group and certainly one of the reasons it sounds as good as it does.”

GLENN ALEXANDER — composer, guitarist, vocalist; director – jazz studies, Sarah Lawrence College

“[Seth Andrew’s] written critiques are phenomenal. They are actually more like short literary essasys. I am truly impressed by the attention to detail, the insights he shares and the time he must take with these..”

MARY MORRIS — writer; professor, Sarah Lawrence College