John-Carlos Perea and guests perform “Improvising Home” for jazz ensemble. Originally commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission and composed by Perea in 2016, this performance revisits and reinterprets the score following Perea’s 2023 arrival at the UW, where he serves as Ethnomusicology associate professor and adjunct associate professor of American Indian Studies.
Artist Biography
John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) joined the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Washington in Fall 2023 as Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology. An electric bassist, singer, cedar flutist, composer, and ethnomusicologist, Perea’s research interests include jazz and improvised music performance and composition, urban American Indian lived experiences and cultural productions, music technologies, recording and archiving practices, social constructions of "noise," Native and African American jazz cultures, and the Creek and Kaw saxophonist Jim Pepper.
In addition to his scholarly activities, John-Carlos maintains an active career as a GRAMMY® Award winning multi-instrumentalist and recording artist. He has recorded on eighteen albums as a sideman and three as a leader, First Dance (2001), Creation Story (2014), and Cedar Flute Songs (2023). In April 2019, Perea was recognized by the San Francisco Arts Commission’s American Indian Initiative for his musical contribution “to reclaim space, to challenge false narratives, and to reimagine public art from the perspective of Indigenous Peoples.” He has previously served as Associate Professor and Chair of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University (2010-2023), as Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Music at UC Berkeley (2021-22), and as Visiting Researcher, Composer, and Performer (2022-23) at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT).