Described as "a twenty-first century Berlioz" (cvnc.org), John Bower composes contemporary music for acoustic instruments, electronics, and combinations of the two. With a sensitivity for timbre, resonance, and harmonic inflection, Bower's language speaks with a salient lyricism balanced by visceral, phrenetic polyphony.
John's compositions are widely programmed, having been heard in the United States, Switzerland, and Italy; in such cities as Boston, San Francisco, Buffalo, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Raleigh/Durham, NC; and in forums that include June in Buffalo, the Imagine Festival, MusicX, soundSCAPE, and the Encounters and Milestones festivals among others. His music is performed by such noted soloists as John McDonald, Jonathan Bagg, Anne Black, Lisa Cella, Matt Albert, and Michael Orland; the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble; and by the members of other celebrated ensembles in the U.S. and abroad. Bower's digital media composition, ombres d'un reflet, is featured in the third edition of Sound Lab Channel, a curated collection of sonic art and electronic music based in Cologne, Germany.
John holds composition degrees from the Berklee College of Music (B.M.) and Duke University (Ph.D. and A.M.). His principal teachers have included Scott Lindroth, Stephen Jaffe, Anthony Kelley, Marti Epstein, Randall Woolf, and James Russell Smith. John is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships for his artistic and academic work, including a 2008 McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship in music composition.
For more information, please visit John's official site here .
