Austin Music Award-nominated multi-instrumental musician, performer, and composer, Carolyn Trowbridge is an energetic, multifaceted artist. Her innovative fluency with her craft creates sonic experiences, fueled by a zealous passion for all things “sound”.
She has recorded, collaborated and performed with several well-known artists including Grammy Award nominees Black Pumas, Adrian Quesada, Graham Reynolds, Alex Coke, Star Parks, Hard Proof, Mike Portnoy, and many more. In 2023, Trowbridge began writing for her own 5-piece project, and recorded her debut album, Found Memories, an evocative homage to all the impactful moments within her mind, from a spirited grackle attack to the winding staircase of her Czech childhood home.
In 2009, Trowbridge performed with Grammy-winning choir A Company of Voices for a PBS special, going on to support Snoop Dogg’s performance at ACL Live at the Moody Theater with KP and the Boom Boom in 2014 and making further appearances at both SXSW and ACL festivals over multiple years, most recently with Adrian Quesada's Boleros Psicodélicos which also included a live taping.
In addition to her projects and regular performance schedule, Trowbridge is an established music educator with 20+ years of experience teaching theory, composition and practical skills, delivering masterclasses across the country and competing internationally. In 2018, she co-directed the Walsh Middle School percussion ensemble, leading them to win the award of the International Percussion Ensemble Competition, where they performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. She is also an active member of Austin’s steel band community, performing at private events and weddings, as well as alongside the Inside Out Steel band and performing at Trinidad and Tobago’s Panorama, an annual music competition of steel bands.
Special THANK YOU to Lizabel Garcia for this artfully crafted biography.
“Carolyn Trowbridge has found more memories than many of us could hope to lose in a given lifetime, much less recover. The interior world of the prolific Austin vibraphonist and percussionist is revealed to be one of fantastic color, motion, and humor on her debut album Found Memories.
Trowbridge debuted her quartet in 2023 and quickly swept through Austin's first floor of clubs in less than a year. In the meantime, she herself has played with rock jammers, psych groovers, afrobeat shakers, free jazz howlers, steel pan educators, vocal ensembles, and more. She is a first-call recording and performing musician for producers and bandleaders in Austin, and spending even a moment with the music she has composed for this quartet shows why. Trowbridge is fluent in both classical and popular vernaculars, and her adeptness at a range of styles befits a composer eager to engage with any and all moods. On the album she augments the quartet of vibes, drums (Nick Tozzo), guitar (Bryan Sunderman), and bass (Mario Castellanos) with far-reaching players from Austin's jazz underground (Alex Coke, flute) to the Austin Symphony (Elaine Barber, harp).
She told me that the music was written in a flash—a burst of concentrated creativity—and the quartet's unified voice belies the huge range of styles present on the album. It was recorded with a similar dedicated intensity, all ten songs having been laid down in just two days in August. But most of all, Trowbridge's melodies are consistently broad yet memorable, winding through delicate portraits of a moment—a memory? Her music turns out to be a future-proof version of nostalgia, or if you prefer, a nostalgia-proof version of the future. Listeners will not have to squint to imagine the exotic mid-century stocks hawked by A. Lyman, L. Baxter, et al.—the vibraphone itself conjures the idea of a hazy, sweetly orchestrated past-present—but they should not fail to also notice Trowbridge's precise compositional style, forward vision, and personal wit. Her memories are not for sale with a tropical guesthouse included; they are distinctly hers.”
—T.J. Masters, Austin TX
“We have a great conversation about her journey in music working in jazz, rock, pop, latin music, and so many more, playing with K.P. and the Boom Boom, covering "Tom Sawyer" with Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy, finally making her first solo album, motherhood, Simon Says (Paul Simon tribute band), jazz, and much more.”
Extended biography
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Adrian Quesada
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Found Memories Album
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The Azmaris
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Star Parks
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Alex Coke and Carl Michel Sextet
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KP and the Boom Boom
Original COMPOSITIONS
Carolyn’s charts, arranged by CJ Menge for steel band are
NOW AVAILABLE for purchase through Boxfish Music.
Since graduating from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007 with an MA in Performance after completing a BA in Music at the James Madison University in Virginia, Trowbridge has made a significant contribution to the Austin music scene, exploring musical genres such as pop, rock, world, jazz, soul, and experimental, through an emotive performance style and stellar command of instruments that include the vibraphone, steel drum and keyboard.
Carolyn lives in Austin, Texas with her composer/sound designer husband, Mike Vernusky, their two vibrant children and an adorable cat named Zero. Running, swimming, figure-skating and producing amusing short-form videos are just some of the leisurely pursuits enjoyed during any spare time.
