Sean Dowgray (D.M.A) is a classical percussionists specializing in modern and contemporary
music. Currently a doctoral candidate at UC San Diego, Dowgray has worked with every
established music organization in the San Diego area including the San Diego Symphony,
La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, red fish blue fish percussion ensemble, Palimpsest new
music ensemble, RENGA, San Diego New Music, Art of Élan, Mainly Mozart, the La Jolla
Music Society. Furthermore, Dowgray has appeared on multiple occasions with Los Angeles’
preeminent new music series Monday Evening Concerts, the WasteLAnd New Music Series,
the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Noon to Midnight Series, and with the San Francisco
Contemporary Chamber Players. Dowgray has been an active performer throughout the
United States, having performed with members of the International Contemporary Music
Ensemble and having appeared in venues including Carnegie Hall, the DiMenna Center,
The Cleveland Museum of Art, and Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Learning.
As a soloist, Dowgray has focused extensively on works that stretch the technical
and expressive capabilities of both instrument and performer. This includes the work
of Jason Eckardt, Josh Levine, Daniel Tacke, Salvatore Sciarrino, Lewis Nielson, David
Lang, Christopher Adler, Brian Ferneyhough, Luciano Berio, Richard Barrett, and most
recently Ylva Lund Bergner. Dowgray has been featured as a soloist at the Oberlin
Percussion Institute, the Percussive Art Society International Convention (PASIC),
the WasteLAnd New Music Series, Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Learning, the University
of Arizona, the SoundON New Music Festival, and Eureka! Musical Minds of California.
Dowgray is a proponent of creative collaborations which have resulted in recent musical
works by Daniel Tacke (Vorrücken and einsamkeit), Josh Levine (Shrinking world/expanding and Les yeux ouverts) as well as new chamber works by Justin Murphy-Mancini (Sic itur ad astra) and Lydia Winsor Brinadmour (As if, sand). In the recent past, Dowgray has collaborated closely with composers including Jürg
Frey (Garden of Transparency), Christopher Adler (Strata), Ioannis Mitsialis (Machine Mode), Lewis Nielson (Where Ashes Make the Flowers Grow and NOVA), and James Wood (Cloud Polyphonies).
Dowgray is a graduate of the the Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) where studied with Michael
Rosen, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (M.M.) where he studied with Dr. Morris
Palter, and UC San Diego (D.M.A) where he studied with Steven Schick.