Trequartista (Italian)(trek.warˈtis.ta) “playmaker“

Andrew McGowan is an award winning composer and contemporary performing artist based in Urbana, Illinois. His career has led him to work as a composer, performer, athletic trainer, teacher, conductor, and brasswind repair technician. His works have been performed and recorded all over the United States.

Andrew strives to compose music that helps others to reconnect with what it means to feel alive. His compositions blend the styles of the past and present to find a sound for the future through a mixture of rigorously constructed form, intense rhythms, contemporary playing techniques, ancient tonalities, and often electronics. McGowan writes for musical ensembles of all sizes, film, podcasts, and contemporary media. Most recently his work has focused on Contemporary Chamber music, Jazz, and Cross-Cultural Improvised Music. Andrew was a 2023 Imani Winds Emerging Composing Fellow.

He holds a Masters Degree from the University of Illinois, a Diploma from Minnesota State College Southeast, and a Bachelor’s Degree from Illinois State University where his studies have included Music Composition, Tuba and Euphonium Performance, Band Instrument Repair, Conducting, and Music Education. His other interests include Visual Art, History, Economics, Physiology, Psychology, anything that gets him outside.