Dr. Jessica Pearce
Instructor of Horn Office: 2518 - Doudna Fine Arts CtrEmail: jhpearce@eiu.edu
Email: jhpearcehorn@gmail.com
Website: https://www.jessicapearcehorn.com
INTRODUCTION
Jessica is a performer and teacher based out of central Illinois. She has been Instructor of Horn at Eastern Illinois University since 2018, and her duties include teaching horn, brass methods, and music appreciation courses. In addition to teaching at Eastern Illinois, she performs with the EIU Faculty Brass Quintet and EIU Faculty Wind Quintet. She was Adjunct Instructor of Horn at Illinois Wesleyan University, her alma mater, from 2016-2019.
Jessica is founding member of the chamber ensemble Calypsus Brass. Calypsus Brass is a groundbreaking musical group founded by five women who earned a doctoral degree in music, the first of its kind. Calypsus Brass is committed to prioritizing recording and performing works of historically marginalized composers to uplift the highest quality of music. To further this mission, Calypsus Brass is proud to be the Ensemble in Residence for Rising Tide Music Press, an organization that publishes and promotes BBIA (Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian) musicians in their 10 years of professional-level work as composers and arrangers.
In 2018 Jessica completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Horn Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During this degree she studied horn with Bernhard Scully and also studied jazz improvisation with Jim Pugh. Prior to working on her doctorate, Jessica worked as a freelancer and private teacher in the Chicago area from 2011-2015.
Jessica plays Assistant Principal and Utility Horn with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and Second Horn with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony. She has also performed with the Quad City Symphony, Peoria Symphony, Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, the Gil Evans Project, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Chicago, the Southwest Michigan Symphony, da Corneto Opera Company, Millikin-Decatur Symphony, and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.
Education & Training
D.M.A. University of Illinois, 2018
M.M. University of Michigan, 2011
B.M. Illinois Wesleyan University, 2009
Primary Horn Teachers: Bernhard Scully, Adam Unsworth, Bryan Kennedy, Christine Janicki, Neil Kimel, and David Griffin
Conference Presentations
2022 International Women's Brass Conference: Recital with Calypsus Brass
2019 International Women's Brass Conference: Solo Recital
Frequently Taught Courses
Horn Lessons
Chamber Brass
Interacting with Music
Brass Methods
Research & Creative Interests
Dissertation
Jazz Influence on Unaccompanied Horn Literature: A Guide to Performing Solo Works by Douglas Hill, David Amram, and Dana Wilson
Professional Affiliations
Member, International Horn Society and the International Women's Brass Conference