Jerry L. Bowder, music theory and composition
Jerry
L. Bowder is a Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Southern
Maine. He joined the University of Southern Maine faculty in 1960 after
receiving a Ph.D. in composition at the Eastman School of Music. He earned
a Bachelor of Arts degree in Composition from the University of Washington,
Seattle in 1952, and a Master of Music Degree in Composition from Lewis
and Clark College, Portland, Oregon in 1956.
Active as a composer for over 40 years, his compositions include four symphonies, a quartet and numerous other works. Dr. Bowder was appointed the Maine Bicentennial composer in 1976 and has received many commissions and awards, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1972 for his String Quartet No. 1.
Performances of his major works have been given by the Eastman-Rochester Philharmonic, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, the Lewis and Clark Orchestra, the Manhatten Orchestra, the New England Music Camp Orchestra, the Pierre Monteaux Domaine Orchestra, the Gorham Chamber Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Champaigne-Urbana Symphony. The Portland String Quartet has performed his string quartet throughout the United States and South America, and in 1975 presented this work at the American Music Festival of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Quartet No. 1 was one of only seven works to receive critical acclaim from among the 41 works presented on the concert series. Dr. Bowder's music is published by Accura Music of Rochester, New York, and Manduca Music Publications of Portland, Maine.
After a battle with cancer, we sadly report that Dr. Bowder
passed away on February 10, 2005. At the request of Dr. Bowder's wife, Libbie
Perry-Bowder, contributions can be made in his honor to the Jerry Bowder Music
Scholarship fund at USM. For more information, contact Margaret Wilkis,
Coordinator of Music Development, 37 College Ave., Gorham, ME 04038,
207-780-5593, wilkis@usm.maine.edu .
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