Seth Andrew

Bearman

Seth Andrew Bearman is a seasoned trumpet player of twenty years. Her work is intentional about tone, versatile and nuanced, with a focus on improvisation, all the way down to arrangement and musical form. Every aspect of her music is a stitch in a fabric of choice.

My creativity comes from a playful instinct.

Seth Andrew writes short stories and poetry for page and performance. Intimately tangled with linguistics, her writing centers themes of sensory experience, the magic of understanding language, and Jewish tradition.

In instrumental works for mixed ensembles, Seth Andrew curates timbres and textures to reenact the beauty and whimsy of a satisfying life. She also sets text, embracing the raw musicality of language.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Seth Andrew performs on piano, synthesizers, acoustic guitar, and percussion. She has developed a rig for expressive electronic performance, taking tactile acoustic touch and plugging 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 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. I address questions of composition beyond traditional notation or score: could a piece of music be found in a photo album? a recipe? a map? or a piece of literature?

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

I recently started a blog reviewing recordings and performances by local Chicago musicians. Check it out on this site or on Substack!

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.

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 teach trumpet to students of all ages (including adults). I also offer 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. Familiar with DAWs like Ableton, recording software, and complex MIDI environments, I’m a fundamentally 21st-century musician. I’m proficient in the music notation softwares Dorico and Sibelius. 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.

“[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 [her] patience in working with, encouraging and waiting on folks to step up. [She] 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 she shares and the time she must take with these..”

MARY MORRIS — writer; professor, Sarah Lawrence College