Download ABOUT DAVID BOWER Dr. David N. Bower is an American organist

ABOUT DAVID BOWER
Dr. David N. Bower is an American organist, church musician & composer. He was
appointed Director of Music & Organist at St. Michael Church in Cranford, New Jersey
in 2009 where he oversees the entire music program and the musical life of the parish. St.
Michael Church is the third largest parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark,
New Jersey, which comprises nearly 300 parishes. It is a congregation of over 20,000
members within over 4,000 household units. Dr. Bower directs the adult choir
(auditioned), handbell choir, resurrection choir (funeral choir), contemporary youth
ensemble, a cantor ministry and two assistant conductors. He presides over the music for
nearly 400 liturgies each year.
Born in Rochester, New York, he began his early organ study at Roberts Wesleyan
College with Professor Anne Honeywell before matriculating into the organ department
at The State University of New York College at Fredonia, where, under his principal
teacher, Dr. John T. Hofmann, he earned his Bachelor of Music degree in organ
performance. During his junior year as an undergraduate, he also studied organ in
Vienna, Austria at the Diocesan Conservatory for Church Music under Dr. Gerard
Boellmann, Oberkapellmeister of St. Ulrich’s Kirche. He earned his Master of Music
degree in organ performance from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey
in the class of Dr. Joan Lippincott. While at Westminster he sang in the Westminster
Symphonic Choir under Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Hugh
Wolf, Sir David Willcocks, Leonard Bernstein, and studied choral conducting with
Frauke Haaseman. He earned his PhD in music education from New York University in
2008. During his doctoral coursework, he completed his Kodály music education
certification.
Dr. Bower has performed organ recitals at such places as St. Thomas Church Fifth
Avenue, Princeton University, Columbia University, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC, The
National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, The
Richard M. Ferris Organ at the Round Lake Auditorium in Round Lake, NY, Irvine
Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania, and Kings Chapel in Boston, among many
others.
He has served on the faculties at New York University’s Expository Writing Program in
the College of Arts and Science and at The New School for Music Study, the Francis
Clark Center for Keyboard Study in Princeton, NJ. He has presented published papers on
the topic of music education at numerous academic conferences including the College
Music Society in Quebec City, Canada in 2005 and the International Society for Music
Education in Bologna, Italy in 2008. His article Musical Knowledge and Choral
Curriculum appears in Visions of Research in Music Education and his recent book is
called Constructivism in Music Education Technology: Creating and Environment for
Choral Composition.
As a composer, Dr. Bower has written extensively for choir, organ and congregation. In
2013, his Christmas choral anthem Our Hope Is Borne This Christmastide was debuted
by the St. Michael Parish Choir. His hymn “All People That On Earth Do Dwell
(Aldenwayne L.M.)” debuted in 2015 in the parish and his choral anthem “O Sun of
Justice” was debuted in 2014.
Prior to his 2009 appointment at St. Michael’s, he served as Director of Music &
Organist for 16 years at St. Ann Church in Raritan, New Jersey where he built a large,
multi-choir music program and taught music in the adjoining St. Ann School. He is an
active member of both the New York City and Metropolitan New jersey Chapters of the
American Guild of Organists, and has been a member of the AGO since 1985. He is a
performing member of the Westfield Musical Club and he serves on the National Special
Interest Committee for Music Education in the National Association of Pastoral
Musicians.