About Jeff

Dr. Jeff R. Warren is Associate Professor of Music and Interdisciplinary Arts at Trinity Western University. In August he joins the faculty of Quest University in Squamish as tutor of music and humanities. Jeff’s research areas include music and ethics, improvisation, soundscape, and phenomenology. His book, Music and Ethical Responsibility, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. Jeff’s creative work includes jazz composition and performance on double bass. He is also a sound artist, and was commissioned to create a sound sculpture for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. He is currently working on a SSHRC funded project called The Ethics of Timbre. Jeff also does consulting work in interdisciplinary and general education curriculum design. Jeff has a Ph.D. in music and philosophy from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Growing up in Ottawa, ON with a father in a semi-professional choral group, Jeff played piano, trumpet and sang in church musicals. At 15 he picked up the bass guitar because he was the worst guitar player among his friends and soon was in a band that found its way on to a small label in Kingston, ON. That group’s future was cut short for schooling, as Jeff traveled across the country to study the double bass at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. After receiving his B.A., Jeff returned to school to complete an interdisciplinary M.A. in Religion, Culture, and Ethics. He then went on to complete a Ph.D. at Royal Holloway, University of London in music and philosophy. He studied with Andrew Bowie and Nicholas Cook and his thesis title was “Musical Experience and Human Relationships: Meaning, Improvisation, and Ethics in Music”.

Jeff has played with the West Coast Symphony, the Vancouver Philharmonic, and several jazz and pop / rock groups including the jazz trio Fulcrum and the Nuevo Flamenco trio De La Terra, and has performed in many different venues and events including the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Jaun de Fuca Festival, and the Chan Centre. Jeff has also been a session player and has contributed his electric and double bass playing to many recordings. In the past few years he has turned his attention to creating sound installations.

Jeff currently resides with his wife and two daughters in Abbotsford, B.C. He likes to pretend he surfs, but it is hard to really be a surfer when you only go a couple times a year. He broke his board the last time he surfed.