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Joseph Sowa (b. 1984) has written for a variety of forces, including chamber, electronic, choral, and orchestral groups. Among recent accomplishments, his new violin concerto will be premiered by the BYU Chamber Orchestra in December 2011. Earlier in the year, he was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment to write a chamber piece for bassist Eric Hansen that was premiered at the 2011 Convention of the International Society of Bassists. Joseph has also received commissions from the BYU Laycock Endowment, Douglas Bush, and the Tower Duo. His music has been read by performers such as the US Coast Guard Sax Quartet, fEARnoMUSIC, Jean Kopperud and Stephen Gosling of the New York New Music Ensemble, and others. His has studied primarily with Stephen Jones, Neil Thornock, Michael Hicks, Steve Ricks, and David Sargent, in addition to Robert Aldridge and David Dzubay.

Outside of music, Joseph is also an active editor and writer, having worked as an intern for BYU’s Humanities Publication Center and as managing editor for Insight, the magazine of the BYU Honors Department. In his spare time, Joseph enjoys reading, hiking, and cooking.

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Joseph Sowa (b. 1984), a masters student in music composition at Brigham Young University, has written for a variety of forces, including chamber, electronic, choral, and orchestral groups. He has received commissions from the Barlow Endowment, Douglas Bush, the Tower Duo, and the BYU Chamber Orchestra. In his spare time, Joseph enjoys reading, hiking, and cooking.

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Joseph Sowa created his first piece of music at the age of 5. At the time, he knew very little about music, so he drew a piano part—oblivious to how it would sound. Fortunately, in elementary school, he began to play violin, and when, in middle school, he began to compose music, he progressed from drawing it to actually writing it. Since high school, Joseph has written music drawing inspiration from astronomy, crackpot inventors, distance running, model railroads, religion, and the interstate freeway system, among other sources. His music has been performed by a dedicated cadre of performers who have only occasionally grumbled about its technical challenges. His longest, still-unfulfilled musical dream is to write a piece for tuba ensemble. (No joke.)

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