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”.
Vibraphonist and multi-instrumentalist Carolyn Trowbridge is a vibrant force in Austin’s music scene—as a performer, studio musician, composer, and educator. Hailed by the Austin Chronicle as a “vibraphone sorceress,” she moves fluidly across genres, performing with rock bands, Afrobeat ensembles, avant-garde jazz groups, mainstream vocalists, and classical ensembles. From the US to Australia, her dynamic résumé includes collaborations with Grammy-nominated Black Pumas, Adrian Quesada, Curtis Harding, Graham Reynolds, studio sessions with Stephen Perkins and Mike Portnoy; an appearance with the Grammy-winning choir Conspirare for a PBS special; and an ACL Live performance opening for Snoop Dogg.
A frequent featured artist and longtime educator, Trowbridge has delivered masterclasses across the U.S. and leads and composes for her own neo-exotica inspired quintet. Originally from Alexandria, VA, she grew up overseas in Gabon, the Czech Republic, and Norway before earning music degrees in Percussion Performance from James Madison University and The University of Texas at Austin. Her versatility, creativity, and expressive approach to the vibraphone continue to make her one of Austin’s most in-demand artists.
“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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Carolyn Trowbridge
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Adrian Quesada
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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.
