More than four decades after pioneering popular music studies at 91ÑÇÉ«, rock 'n' roll Professor Emeritus Rob Bowman will bring his passion for music education to a new audience.
Bowman will combine music history, live performance and immersive cultural experiences through , a travel cruise series launched with 91ÑÇÉ« alum and media specialist Jenny St. Germain.
The venture pairs luxury river cruises with lectures and discussions led by Bowman, offering a new experience for music enthusiasts.
The inaugural trip, Jazz in France, is a seven-night voyage through the Seine River scheduled for June 2027 and marks the first in what organizers hope will be a series that explores a range of destinations and musical genres.
For Bowman, a Grammy Award-winning ethnomusicologist and professor emeritus at 91ÑÇɫ’s , the project is a natural extension of a career dedicated to making music scholarship accessible beyond the classroom.Â
"I've always been interested in reaching the general public," says Bowman. "My lectures are fun and performative, but the bottom line is I teach critical listening. I literally can change the way people hear music that lasts beyond any given lecture and ultimately changes the way that they interact with music for the rest of their life."
The idea for Legendary Soundwaves came from St. Germain, a former student of Bowman who now works in the travel industry. Having seen the impact his lectures had on students and music enthusiasts, St. Germain approached Bowman with an idea: combine immersive travel with his distinct approach to storytelling and music education.
"I think this is exciting," says Bowman. "I have, on occasion, worked on projects with other former students but lecturing on a cruise will be a whole new experience."
The inaugural voyage will cruise through Normandy's historic ports, cultural landmarks and Impressionist landscapes and will feature privately curated jazz talks and dinner performances.
"Participants will learn about various aspects of jazz history, hear some great music and see some amazing film clips," says Bowman.
Through guided listening sessions, Bowman will explore how timbre, time, melody, harmony and instrumentation shapes what we hear, a concept he calls "critical listening." By connecting these elements to the cultural history of each destination, he aims to deepen participants’ understanding of the music and places that helped inform it.
While the first voyage focuses on jazz, Bowman says the long-term vision for Legendary Soundwaves will focus on a variety of genres.
"Future voyages will look at classical music, rock 'n’ roll, rhythm and blues and so on. I think it will be a whole lot of fun," he says.
The travel series continues Bowman’s commitment to sharing more than 50 years of music knowledge with audiences beyond the classroom.
"I believe it is valuable to make knowledge available as widely as possible," he says. "I can make what some would describe as musical academic knowledge accessible to the general public by removing much of the jargon."
For Bowman, Legendary Soundwaves offers another way to take decades of music scholarship outside of academia and connect it with new audiences.