Composer, performer, and researcher, Aubrie Powell studied Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the University of New Mexico (UNM). For her final research thesis, she is studying musical agency in performance on the National Public Radio Tiny Desk concert series in “NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Series: Vocalities of Outrage and Acts of Gaiety” in advisement with Ana R. Alonso-Minutti and Kristina Jacobsen. She is additionally conducting an ethnography of the Musicians and Fiddlers of New Mexico, a group of old-time fiddlers and country musicians that jam in Bosque Farms just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Aubrie has presented he research on musical acts of gaiety at the Rocky Mountain Music Scholars Joint Conference of the American Musicological Society (AMS), Society of Ethnomusicology (SEM), and the Society of Music Theory (SMT).
Aubrie Powell's music is described as colorful and spiked with humor. Recently, her guitar quartet The Colored Horses was selected for performance by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet for the American Composers Forum (ACF) National Showcase in June 2019. Other events include attendance at the 2017 Society of Composers Inc. National Conference for a performance of her piano trio that incorporates vocalization, aɪ Kænt Spiːk, and earning a spot as a finalist for the Morton Gould Young Composers Award in 2015.
Aubrie Powell earned a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance (UMKC)where she studied with Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Paul Rudy, and James Mobberley. Her thesis in fulfillment of her Master's degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) developed a multi-movement orchestral work that musically sketches the characters Amelia and Colin from John C. Wright’s trilogy The Chronicles of Chaos. She received a Bachelor of Music degree in music composition from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music where she studied with the composer in residence, Clint Needham.
Aubrie frequently works with interdisciplinary artists to combine ideas and artistry. Her fruitful and close collaboration with artist Taylor Fourte on the music to her short animated film, Birthmark, dove into the infinite possibilities of electronic music. In collaboration with librettist Gaby Radak, Aubrie wrote a chamber opera, The Raindance Café, portraying the struggles of finding a place in the world after college. Aubrie explored the world of music and dance with many choreographers on works presented in the Baldwin Wallace University (BWU) Fyoo zh en dance concerts, the UMKC Dance Collaborations, and the Charlotte New Music Dance Collaboration Workshop. Aubrie has written incidental music for two Shakespeare productions at BWU, All’s Well that Ends Well and Henry IV Part 1. She also worked with many renowned music ensembles including the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Baldwin Wallace and University of Missouri-Kansas City Symphony Orchestras, Ars Futura, Bent Frequency, Apeiron Guitar Quartet, and the American Modern Ensemble.
An avid double bass player, Aubrie is developing an original solo double bass program and swinging with local groups and songwriters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is working with singer-songwriters Jolynn Alarid and Johnny Wilson as well as the Molly Chavez Trio, which gigs locally. Over the summers, she performs her arranged Distillery Tunes with only solo voice and bass in Bertram, TX at Flanigan's Texas Distillery and Winery. She has studied with Mark Tatum at UNM from the New Mexico Philharmonic and the Santa Fe Opera, Jeffrey Kail from the Kansas City Symphony, and Henry Peyrebrune and Charles Carlton from the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.
