Meet the Musicians: Jennifer Godfrey

If you take a wide-angle view of Jennifer Godfrey’s life, you’ll find two motifs that run parallel throughout: music and science.

The Seattle Symphony Bass fell in love with her instrument after her class went on a field trip to see The Florida Orchestra. But she was deemed "too short" to play it in elementary school, so she played violin first, for six years, until at age 14, a series of fortunate events put a bass in her hands — and she was hooked within the first 15 minutes. It wasn’t just that it seemed to fit her better (“my hand just doesn’t want the notes to be close together”), but that it just felt, and sounded, right.

A self-professed science nerd, Godfrey spent her teen years juggling bass performances and competitions with intensive science classes on topics like pathogens and biology in an International Baccalaureate program. She started with a double major at Rice University but quickly realized she couldn’t do both. “I decided that my brain would outlast my connective tissues, so now is the time to do music,” she explained.

She also put in some time at Curtis Institute of Music, but after winning her audition with the Seattle Symphony, she left her studies to do music full time. She’s been a member since 1999.

Her interest in science never waned, just transitioned to different channels — the body (she’s spent years volunteering with Seattle Dance and Performing Arts Medicine Clinic, “a wonderful nonprofit medical clinic giving free musculoskeletal care for local performing artists,” and took part in a medical lecture series focusing on musculoskeletal health); the environment, which spurs her love of hiking the area’s old growth forests; and veganism — through Cornell University, she became certified in plant-based nutrition and worked on the film, Forks over Knives directly afterwards. She’s developed an interest in cultured meat, a form of cellular agriculture considered controversial by some, and took classes on the subject during quarantine. “A lot of scientists and leaders are starting to see this could be a really great way to alleviate strain on the environment and avoid factory farming situations.” She also enjoys brewing up her own dishes (forbidden rice, ramen with miso, vegan sushi), and veganizing Irish food, “because I’m mostly Irish, I’ve been working on tweaking Irish soda bread … and an Irish stew, with Guinness.”

Godfrey has also taken up growing organic heirloom veggies and fruit, and native plant gardening. Her favorite home-grown produce is a perennial tomato called Rose de Berne. “You can never find it in stores, and it’s the most delicious tomato ever. I’ve brought one inside and had the same plant live for three years, and it made tomatoes the whole time.”