Carleton Music: Behind the Scenes

Friday, March 27, 2026 from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm

• In-person event
• A900, Loeb Building, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

Welcome Prospective Music Students!
Join us for an immersive on-campus experience! Explore our spaces, meet the people behind the program, and experience our vibrant performance culture live.

Schedule

Meet our People

Dr. Jesse Stewart is a composer, percussionist, artist, and educator. His music has been documented on over twenty recordings including Stretch Orchestra’s self-titled debut album, which was honoured with the 2012 “Instrumental Album of the Year” Juno award. He has been widely commissioned as a composer and artist. In 2012, he founded “We Are All Musicians” (WAAM), an organization dedicated to making music as broadly accessible as possible. Through the WAAM initiative, he has conducted hundreds of inclusive music workshops and performances.  He has received numerous awards and honours including the Ottawa Arts Council’s Mid-Career Artist Award (2017) and the Ottawa Arts Council Community Arts Educator Award (2023). In 2014, he was named to the Order of Ottawa. In 2022, he was elected to the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada. He is a faculty member in Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art and Culture.

Dr. John Higney completed his doctoral dissertation entitled “Henry Purcell: A Reception/Dissemination History, 1695-1771” at The University of Western Ontario in 2008. His research interests include Renaissance performance practice (musica ficta), baroque musical aesthetics and culture, critical/industrial issues in popular music, and music and politics in Canada. He has presented research in Canada, the United States, and England. He is an Associate Professor (Teaching Stream) in Music in the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University where he has lectured in western classical music history, opera, popular music(s), Canadian music, musicianship, and music industries. In addition to academic areas of expertise, he is a multi-instrumentalist interested and active in a wide range of musics including renaissance and baroque guitar and lute music, various fingerstyle guitar styles, Irish banjo and mandolin music, roots musics, classic country (B-Bender and lap/pedal steel guitars), indie rock, and experimental musics. He has toured extensively and has been heard both in regional and national CBC radio broadcasts as a member of several groups.

Dr. James McGowan (PhD Eastman, ARCT Piano Performance) is an Associate Professor of Music at Carleton University, where he teaches music theory, composition, and community music education, in addition to serving as Supervisor of Performance Studies. Dr. McGowan is a passionate educator and has won several teaching awards. He has also served as Carleton University Chair in Teaching Innovation (2020–23) for his work in developing experiences in the arts on campus and in the community. He is the Managing Director of Carleton Music’s Jazz Camp and Song-to-Stage Camp, he teaches a few weeks a year at the CAMMAC Music Centre in Harrington Québec, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Lotus Centre for Special Music Education in Ottawa. As a scholar, he has a number of research publications in the fields of jazz theory and music pedagogy. 

Embracing multiple styles of music, Dr. McGowan is a solo and collaborative pianist and composer, equally at home in jazz, classical, and improvised musics, who performs regularly. The 14-member James McGowan Ensemble released its jazz-classical fusion concept albums Reaching In and Reaching Out in 2023 and 2024, which feature his compositions and poetry, with another—Threads of Fate—to be released in May 2026. This work has been supported by two Explore and Create grants from the Canada Council for the Arts.

In recent years, he has released nine albums as leader or co-leader. Of particular note is his work with Ottawa-based improvising chamber music quartet Collected Strands, which has led to the release of three recent albums (2024–26). Other albums, including the critically acclaimed album 4K (2020), feature his work as composer, pianist, and leader of the quartet Modasaurus.

Rebekah Waddell is a multi-genre trumpeter and singer-songwriter based in Ottawa, ON. She has created a unique voice as an emerging songwriter and performer by continuing to find ways to feature a horn presence in her solo and collaborative songwriting experiences. Blending elements across genres including classical, big band jazz, folk, and pop, she creates an emotion-filled atmosphere that her audiences connect with.

Building her network within the Ottawa Festival scene, Rebekah is an aspiring band manager and festival director. She has planned and executed a wide range of events within social, professional development, and music performance capacities, amplifying the importance of community and her drive to become a festival director. In the past ten months, she has grown from intern to backstage tech support and artist liaison at both the winter and summer Ottawa Jazz Festivals.

Taking a role at the Canadian Paralympic Committee post graduation, Rebekah learned key skills in a world of high quality and performance and the strength found in community. She has since moved on to fulfill a term as the Music Performance Studies Coordinator at Carleton, and is now headed back to the festival world soon.

A constant advocate for women in music; she calls attention to the need for equal representation, most notably in her efforts to promote women in brass. Rebekah is a fast growing force in the Ottawa industry of horn session players most recently seen performing alongside longtime Canadian and Ottawa session legends in Threads of Fate with the James McGowan Ensemble and KingDom Theatre at the National Arts Centre in June 2025, and is the session trumpeter for local Ottawa band GRFN.