Artist Profile: Jesse Stewart
Jesse Stewart performs at the Daisy Cafe.
This issue’s artist profile is devoted to Jesse Stewart. Not only is Jesse very accomplished in a variety of art forms, he is also enthusiastically dedicated to engaging with a wide variety of people through the arts. He is an award-winning artist, composer, percussionist, researcher, and educator. He holds degrees in music, visual art, ethnomusicology, music composition, and English and theatre studies. An Associate Professor in Carleton University’s Music program, he is involved with several large-scale research initiatives.
Jesse has performed for Radical Connections at the Saint-Vincent Hospital (SVH) and the Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County. He also supervised a team of students from the Research and Education in Accessibility, Design, and Innovation program, who worked to create an app designed to facilitate virtual Radical Connections workshops and concerts.
Jesse’s music has been documented on over twenty recordings including an album which received the 2012 “Instrumental Album of the Year” JUNO award. He has performed and/or recorded with musical luminaries from around the world including William Parker (acclaimed New York City jazz bassist). Jesse’s many honours include the Order of Ottawa (2014), the Ottawa Arts Council’s Mid-Career Artist Award and the Ottawa Arts Council Community Arts Educator Award in 2017 and 2023, respectively. Jesse is also the founder of “We Are All Musicians” (WAAM), an organization dedicated to providing opportunities for individuals and groups to make music regardless of age, musical training, socio-economic circumstance, physical and/or cognitive disability. For a documentary film about the We Are All Musicians project, see https://vimeo.com/334477726.
What has Jesse been up to recently? In the fall 2023, a book that he co-authored with Ajay Heble titled Jamming the Classroom: Musical Improvisation and Pedagogical Practice was published by the University of Michigan Press. It is available for free through an Open Access agreement at https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/t435gg66h. Another book he co-edited titled Improvising Across Abilities: Pauline Oliveros and the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument was published in early 2024. It too is available as a free download at https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/cf95jf39j?locale=en. In January 2024, he resumed making music weekly with the patients at SVH in Ottawa as a volunteer.