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Luke Fitzpatrick, artistic director
Luke Fitzpatrick is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and artistic director of Inverted Space, a Seattle-based new music collective. As a soloist, he has performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with Seattle Festival Orchestra, as well as Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata with Seattle Philharmonic, all with his own added cadenzas. Since 2015, Luke has toured as an active member of the Harry Partch Ensemble, which is dedicated to performing on Partch’s original custom instruments that utilize his unique 43-tone scale, including stops at The University of Illinois, The University of Missouri-Kansas City, Beyond Microtonal Festival in Pittsburgh, PA, and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Luke teamed up with Jeff Bowen in 2019 to arrange and perform the music from the TV show Twin Peaks for the Harry Partch instruments as well as the piece 1 Star Reviews, using 1 star Yelp reviews as the text. One of his signature pieces, The Tomb, was broadcast on Radiophrenia Glasgow in 2020 during a program entitled The Cloud-Chamber of Darkness Half-Hour, and his work has been commissioned and performed by The Harry Partch Ensemble, Figmentum, the Morsel Trio and the Parnassus Project. Luke received his training from UMKC (BM), CalArts (MFA) and the University of Washington (DMA) and is currently concertmaster of Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Festival Orchestra and Federal Way Symphony. Besides music related things, Luke is an avid dancer and enjoys biking, eating sushi and collecting shoes.
Marcin Pączkowski is a composer, conductor, and digital artist, working with both traditional and electronic media. As a composer, he is focused on developing new ways of creating and performing computer music. His pieces involving realtime gesture control using accelerometers have been performed at the Music of Today concert series in Seattle, Washington, Northwest Percussion Festival in Ashland, Oregon, and at the Audio Art festival in Kraków, Poland. As a conductor he is involved in performing new music and premiering new works. He is the conductor and co-director of Inverted Space, a Seattle-based new music collective. He is also the music director of the Evergreen Community Orchestra in Everett, Washington and co-founder of the contemporary chamber vocal ensemble Pogratulujmy Mrówkom in Kraków, Poland. He received his PhD from the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He also received Masters’ degrees from the Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland (composition and conducting), and from University of Washington in Seattle, Washington (composition). He was a grant recipient from Polish Institute of Music and Dance and from Lesser Poland Scholarship Foundation Sapere Auso.
Marcin Pączkowski, co-director
Jeff Bowen, co-director
Jeff Bowen is a composer and guitarist, and a co-director of Seattle’s Inverted Space Ensemble. His compositions have been performed by Pascal Gallois, Beta Collide, Ensemble DissonArt, and the Nebraska Chamber Players, among other ensembles in the USA and Europe. In 2013 his orchestral piece Stalasso was featured in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Works program, and he has recently presented work at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and the University of Nebraska New Music Festival.
Jeff is currently active in Seattle as a performer on classical and electric guitars, playing new works and 20th-century repertoire with the Inverted Space Ensemble, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Universal Language Project, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, and most recently in collaboration with Marcin Pączkowski on live electronics for a performance of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint.
After studying classical guitar with William Ash in St. Louis, he received a BA in Music from Stanford University, where he studied guitar performance with Charles Ferguson and composition with Jaroslaw Kapuscinski and Mark Applebaum. He recently completed a DMA in composition at the University of Washington under Joël-François Durand.
Steven Damouni is an active performer of both contemporary and traditional repertoire. He holds a Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance and a Masters of Art in Music from Washington State University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Steven has performed in masterclass for many prominent teachers including: Nelita True, Doug Humphreys, Robert McDonald, Stephen Drury, and Jonathan Feldman among others. In the summer of 2015, he participated in New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice where he performed the Concord Sonata of Charles Ives in masterclasses and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. He has won numerous regional and state competitions and is equally at ease as a chamber musician. Steven has won many prizes at regional and state competitions. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Washington where he is studying with Dr. Robin McCabe.
Steven Damouni, piano
Laure Struber, piano
French-born musician Laure Struber is a dynamic performer, compelling teacher and a music-activist and interpreter in her community.
The daughter of a jazz musician and an artist-painter, she grew up in Strasbourg and Paris and started the piano at the age of 3 through the Suzuki method. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Strasbourg University, and a Diploma of Musical Studies at the Strasbourg Conservatory of Music, with a minor in early music studies. She came to the United States for the first time when she was 20, through an exchange program between Strasbourg University and Syracuse University and continued her studies as a Fulbright scholar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, earning a Master in Piano Performance under the guidance of Professor Mack McCray.
She settled in Seattle in 2014, serving as the lead Teaching Assistant for the UW School of Music Secondary Piano program. During her studies with Dr. Robin McCabe, she won the University of Washington School of Music concerto competition performing the Chopin E minor concerto.
Most recently, Laure earned her Doctorate in Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the University of Washington in 2017, writing her dissertation on Marie Jaëll's work on hand’s physiology.
In the past decade, Laure has performed widely through Europe and in the US as a soloist, chamber musician, keyboardist for the Strasbourg Philharmonic, and has been the recipient of numerous awards including a France-Fulbright Alumni distinction, a Marina Grin award for “Fine pianism and selfless contribution to the musical world” and a Soroptimist prize. She played master classes for Ethery Jakeli, Awadagin Pratt, Pierre Goy, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Garrick Ohlsson, Boris Berman and performed in major venues, such as: the International Festival of Contemporary Music MUSICA, the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music Art of the Piano Summer Festival, the Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival in Italy or Meany Center for the Performing Arts. She collaborated with many chamber music colleagues, and played for established ensembles, including among others the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Conservatory Baroque Orchestra, the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and Inverted Space, for which she premiered Enfance, Quatre Tableaux by Joël-François Durand.
Natalie Ham, flute
Natalie Ham is a flute student of Donna Shin in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the University of Washington. She holds her Bachelor of Applied Music from the Eastman School of Music. Natalie has performed as principal flute in concert, opera, and ballet productions with the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Bellevue (WA), the Eastman Philharmonia and Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Bay View Opera Orchestra (MI), and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (NY). In addition, she is an active performer in chamber ensembles, including The Evergreen Trio, the Inverted Space Ensemble, the University of Washington Modern Ensemble, the University of Washington Baroque Ensemble, the University of Washington Harry Partch Ensemble, the featured wind quintet of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (NY), and the Bay View Wind Quintet (MI). She has participated as artist and teacher at the Snowater Flute Festival (WA) and was the featured soloist and flute teacher with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, she was the flute and piano teacher at the Belvoir Terrace Summer Camp (MA). In Seattle, Natalie serves in administration positions as the Membership Chair on the Seattle Flute Society Board of Directors and the Housing Chair for the 2022 American Guild of Organists National Convention. Natalie also assisted in organizing the University of Washington Max Reger Symposium (2016). She is currently a Predoctoral Teaching Associate at the University of Washington.