The History of Jeff Chambers Music
In 2004, when Jeff Chambers was in 8th grade, his older brother Ben gave him a spare copy of the notation software, Finale 2003. Jeff first began experimenting with the notation of music and eventually the composition of music. In 2006, when he was a junior in high school, he began composing a marching band show called, "Emotions". His director Keith Russell, his brother/percussion instructor Ben Chambers and his drumline instructor Emmanuel "Cookie" Olaiya would go on to mentor Jeff and help him refine and fully orchestrate the show. In the fall of 2007, the show was used for Jeff's senior year marching band season and would ultimately ignite a career in the world of paegentry music.
In 2008, Jeff left to study music composition and education at the University of Idaho where his natural interest for music composition would be refined and molded into a usable skill-set. Through his college years, he continued composing and arranging marching band music for various high schools in the pacific northwest as well as the University of Idaho's marching band and athletic bands.
In the summer of 2011, as a junior in college, Jeff founded the business, Jeff Chambers Music simply for the purpose of being able to more easily sell his music to schools. One year later in 2012, Jeff successfully published his first marching band show with Center-X Productions, "Laws of Motion". Over the next five years, Jeff would go on to publish 18 total shows with Center-X Productions.
In the fall of 2012, Jeff student taught in Pasco, Washington with his friend and mentor, Kevin Clayton with the full intention of becoming a music teacher himself one year later. Through student teaching, Jeff came to realize that perhaps a career as an educator wasn't what was in store for him, but rather a career in educational music. In the spring of 2013, Jeff returned to the University of Idaho to finish up his composition degree and began exploring what a future as a full time composer would look like.
When Jeff entered the post-college world in 2013, the world was a blank canvas him. He would apply to hundreds of companies in an effort to find consistent work as a composer. All the while, his catalogue of new marching band shows slowly and quietly began to grow and with the help of his brother Ryan, was launched. in the fall of 2013, after Jeff's music successfully grabbed the attention of quite a few people in the pacific northwest, Jeff would be asked to join the staff of the Columbians Drum and Bugle Corps for the 2014 season. He was first asked by his longtime friend and former percussion instructor Emmanuel "Cookie" Olaiya to teach the bass drums. Shortly after, the corps' director Russ Newbury would ask him to help write the music book. Jeff's entrance to the world of drum and bugle corps connected him with dozens of music teachers, instructors and pageantry designers and before he knew it, he was composing and arranging marching band shows for numerous bands in the pacific northwest.
In the fall of 2014, Jeff relocated to Puyallup, Washington which is about 40 minutes south of Seattle. His intent was to get better connected to the film and media scene in Seattle. Having been a classically trained composer, in the summer of 2015, Jeff interned at Clatter&Din post production studio in Seattle to learn the world of digital music; specifically, Logic and Pro Tools. After his internship, things started to happen very quickly.
In the spring of 2016, Jeff would bring on his friend Eric Parchen to help him with percussion arranging and production assistance. One year later in 2017, his friend Sy Hovik would also join the team as a wind arranger and this also marked the first year that Jeff's shows would include electronic sound design. The team of three produced a healthy catalogue of shows in the summer of 2017. Sy would eventually go on to take a job as a band director in Spokane, Washington but Eric remains a part of the team to this day.
In the spring of 2018, a significant team member would join Jeff Chambers Music. Sound designer Tim Mitchell had been quietly collaborating with Jeff on various shows for a number of years, but in the summer of 2018, Tim and Jeff would take their collaboration to the next level. Whereas in previous years Tim would do sound design for only a few of Jeff's shows, Tim would go on to do sound design for over half of Jeff's shows in 2018. In 2019, Jeff asked Tim to take on all sound design responsibilities for all of his shows. Tim also started implementing MainStage programming to Jeff's shows. The implementation of Tim's work not only improved and modernized the overall product of JCM, but also freed up Jeff to focus more on the design and composition of the wind and percussion books for their shows. Additionally, it allowed Jeff to branch out of the marching band world a little more and into the worlds of musical theater and film.
With the addition of Tim Mitchell being a glowing success, Jeff added another member to the team in the fall of 2019, his twin brother Pete Chambers! Pete was there when Jeff started writing music in high school and he was there all through Jeff's college years (he also attended Idaho). Pete moved to Colorado in 2012 to teach music and continues to do so to this day. Pete brought in a wealth of knowledge from the perspective of a public music educator and his contributions as an arranger, editor and production assistant have continued to free up Jeff to focus on composing, arranging and expanding JCM.
As of the fall of 2019, Jeff Chambers Music has four team members, has produced over 75 competitive marching band shows and has increased its yearly clientele from 22 in 2017 to 77 in 2019. Only time will tell what the future holds for Jeff Chambers Music. As JCM continues to grow, Jeff's mission remains unwavering; to provide music that is enjoyable to play, enjoyable to listen to and competitive enough to win championships.