Peter Mowrey

Department/Affiliation: Music
Phone: 330-263-2049
Office Address: 209 Scheide
Email: pmowrey@wooster.edu

Degrees

• Doctor of Music (Composition), Indiana University
• Master of Music (Composition), University of Georgia
• Bachelor of Music (Piano), University of Georgia

Courses Taught

• MUSC 132: Piano
• MUSC 201: Music Theory III
• MUSC 209: Electronic Composition
• MUSC 232: Piano
• MUSC 308: Acoustic Composition
• MUSC 309: Electronic Composition
• Music Technology

Biography, Performance, and Research

Professor of Music, employed by the College since 1997.  His degrees include a B.Mus. in Piano Performance (1989) and M.M. in Composition (1991) from the University of Georgia, and a D.M. in Composition (1995) from Indiana University.  As a pianist, he has specialized in chamber music; performance highlights include Franck's Symphonic Variations with the UGA Orchestra, Joan Tower's Black Topaz (piano and chamber ensemble) on live radio, and Peter Maxwell Davies' Missa super l'homme arme (voice, keyboards, and chamber group) at the Spoleto festival in Charleston. His compositions include Toccata for piano, the national runner-up in the MTNA Collegiate Composition Contest (1990); a sextet for mixed ensemble which won the Philip Slates Composition Contest in 1994; The Hero's Journey, a six-movement piano piece in honor of Joseph Campbell; and many chamber works and electronic compositions, including The Masks of God: An Homage to Joseph Campbell, for electronics and dancers. His most recent major composition is Sangreal, a two-act opera for seven singers and electronic orchestra, the first act of which was premiered at the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival in late September, 2010, and which will be presented in its entirety at Wooster in the Fall of 2013.  In recent years, Mowrey has written more than 25 arrangements for the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland, primarily for the rock artists who have performed with the ensemble as part of the ongoing “Rock the Orchestra” program.  These arrangements include works for Styx (published on the One with Everything CD and DVD), Donnie Iris, Billy Jonas, Jefferson Starship (CD and DVD forthcoming), and Jon Anderson of Yes (CD and DVD forthcoming).  Mowrey is also the author of Award Winning Films: A Viewer's Reference to 2700 Acclaimed Motion Pictures (McFarland & Company, 1994).