Don Bowyer • Musician
Don Bowyer (b. 1958) is Professor of Music and Dean of the School of Arts at Sunway University (Malaysia). Having previously served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Arkansas State University (USA) and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (USA), Bowyer has taught at every level from kindergarten through university in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Sweden, and Malaysia. He received his Doctor of Arts from the University of Northern Colorado, Master of Arts from California State University-Northridge, and Bachelor of Arts from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Active in the fields of composition, music technology, and performance, Bowyer has published more than 60 pieces of music, developed an educational computer program that has been used in at least 120 countries, and has performed as a trombonist in more than 50 countries. Among other performing credits, he spent five years playing trombone on eleven cruise ships in the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Gulf of Alaska. The first ten didn’t sink. (See this link for an account of the eleventh.)
Bowyer and his wife have also served as foster parents, having provided a home to eighteen foster children between 2003 and 2010.
Arts & Education Writings
We Need the Arts Now More than Ever
05October 2020
The Arts are a vital part of how humanity copes with crisis: by communicating human emotion through creative activities. There is something cathartic about the shared artistic experience that transcends all artificial boundaries, be they political, racial, or otherwise. Ultimately, we are all human.… [more]
Creative Arts Degrees for 21st-Century Careers
02 December 2019
Universities do a great deal more than teaching, as reflected through the fact that academic staff at the typical university are expected to engage in teaching, research, and service. It is through these activities that higher education benefits society at large: providing the transmission, discovery, and application of … [more]
Audience Participation in Classical Music
08 March 2019
Introducing the element of chance by allowing the audience to influence a performance: Aleatoric or “chance” music has existed in one form or another in western art music for centuries, having become something of a staple of Modern Music of the 20th and 21st centuries. One 18th century … [more]
News
College Music Society International Conference – 24-30 June 2021
Don Bowyer will deliver a paper in Colombia (if the pandemic allows) at the international conference of the College Music Society… [more]
College Music Society South Central Region Virtual Conference – 26-27 March 2021
Don Bowyer will perform one of his compositions at the virtual conference of the College Music Society South Central Region… [more]
College Music Society Southern Region Virtual Conference – 25-27 February 2021
Don Bowyer will perform one of his compositions and deliver a paper at the virtual conference of the College Music Society Southern Region… [more]
Rooftop Trombone v3.0 – 13 January 2021 –
Several regions in Malaysia, including the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area, went back into a Movement Control Order (full lockdown) on 13 January 2021, so Don Bowyer committed to once again streaming live music… [more]