Accomplished Cleveland jazz vocalist, arranger, educator and season 3 finalist on NBC's "The Sing-Off" makes BLU debut with all-star quartet! Featuring Reggie Bowens, Theron Brown, Aidan Plank, Zaire Darden.
Cleveland native Reginald Bowens’ gifted art has wrought him an exceptional background over the years, working with accomplished artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Loggins, and Kim Nazarian, to name a few. After completion of his undergraduate degree program at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University in 2011, he appeared on season three of NBC’s hit a cappella television show “The Sing-Off” as a vocal bass contestant and arranger with Afro-Blue (now Traces of Blue). The group placed fourth out of sixteen a cappella groups from across the globe.
Later that year, Reggie returned to Cleveland and became a faculty member at The Music Settlement – a community music school – where he served in many capacities to help further music education in the Cleveland community, especially with inner-city teenagers and young men from age nine and up. This experience led him to found his A Cappella Camp in 2013 (www.theacappellacamp.com), which recently appeared on Fox 8 News’ Kickin’ It With Kenny. He is the co-director of VocalArts in the Creative Arts Academy at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), and voice instructor of the East Cleveland Community Arts and Mentorship Program.
Reggie is an accomplished arranger in the a cappella and jazz communities, and since he began “doodling” with Finale Notation Software in the seventh grade, while a student at Cleveland School of the Arts, his ability to create refreshing arrangements has flourished. In 2014 and 2015, his arrangements (and performances) brought him recognition in DownBeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards.
After receiving his master of music degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Reggie became a faculty member of the Jazz Studies program at Tri-C where he currently teaches voice and piano. He has worked with iconic musical artists performing multiple genres, and proving that music is a universal language in which he is fluent. He does not know what the future holds, but through his faith and genuine love of the art, he plans to actualize his destiny.