BIOGRAPHY

Jackson Gearing is a composer, conductor, tubist, and graduate student attending the UMKC Conservatory (MM in Composition with Applied Focus in Tuba Performance, ant. 2026). Since the start of his undergraduate degree at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music (BM in Composition, 2023), he has written and performed various chamber pieces for wind instruments, large brass ensemble music, and music for wind ensemble and orchestra, as well as various arrangements of composers such as Silvestrov, Pärt, Sibelius and Ruggles.

Recent noteworthy performance include the premiere of his art song, Baby bird, at Festival Osmose in Belgium; his first orchestral premiere, Moskstraumen, with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria; and a chamber work of his, A Persuasion, performed by the Kandinsky Society, an orchestra based in Yerevan, Armenia. He also frequently conducts his larger ensemble music, such as Meditations for Brass and River, the latter winning an “Outstanding Performance of a Student Composition” award from the Lamont School of Music in June 2023. He is currently guided
by Yotam Haber in his compositional works. Previous instructors include Sean Friar and Nathan Hall. He also keeps up with tuba under the tutelage of Jarrett McCourt, and has studied in his undergraduate years with Warren Deck and Kathy Brantigan.

 

In 2023, Jackson won the “Outstanding Student in Composition” award from the Lamont School of Music. Last February, he participated in the Nes Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland where he set forth composing his first symphony (some movements of which have live recordings by various orchestras). Jackson is also composer in residence for the 2024-25 Volker Brass Quintet.

Jackson’s largest influences are 20th-century composers such as Schnittke, Rouse, Xenakis, and
Shostakovich, as well as contemporary composers Sofia Gubaidulina, Andrew Norman, and Thomas Adès.