2022 Young Composers Contest Winner
Dr. Christopher Lowry
After an extensive review process, Dr. Christopher Lowry (age 34), of Hoover, Alabama, has been selected as the winner of the Austin Symphonic Band’s inaugural Young Composers Contest. A panel of adjudicators selected Dr. Lowry out of a field of sixty applicants.
In addition, five applicants were selected as finalists. These include (listed in alphabetical order):
Amy Austria, 24, Austin, TX
Harrison Collins, 23, Little Elm, TX
JaRod Hall, 31, San Antonio, TX
Dr. Shuying Li, 33, Roseville, CA
Dr. Keane Southard, 35, Medina, OH
Dr. Christopher Lowry, DMA
Composer, Violist, Recording Engineer
About Dr. Christopher Lowry
A two-time prizewinner in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and Grand Prize winner in the Lewisville Lake Symphony International String Competition, Dr. Christopher Lowry is emerging as one of the leading violists and composers of his generation. Equally active as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, Lowry has appeared as soloist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Lewisville Lake Symphony Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Philharmonic, Louisiana Sinfonietta, Nashville Sinfonietta, Orquesta de Festival Internacional de Musica Naolinco, University of Maine Symphony Orchestra, Vanderbilt University Orchestra, Louisiana State University Symphony Orchestra, and the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, among others. He recently led a consortium of 20 violists to commission the first major Mexican viola concerto by Eduardo Gamboa, which he will premiere in 2023 with the Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de los Artes.
In September 2022, Dr. Lowry joined the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as their new principal violist after serving three years as principal viola with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra and nearly a decade as principal viola for both the Baton Rouge and Acadiana Symphony Orchestras. He is currently the violist of Lagniappe Trio and the Constantinides String Quartet, with whom he performed in Carnegie Hall in September 2019 and October 2022. Formerly, he was the founding violist of the Ars Nova String Quartet and a frequent guest violist with the Mexico City-based Carlos Chavez String Quartet. Over the summers, Dr. Lowry serves on the faculty at the Festival Internacional de Música Naolinco in Mexico.
As a composer, Dr. Lowry has won prizes in an impressive number of composition contests, including the Sousa/ABA/Ostwald Composition Award, the Association of Texas Small School Bands Composition Competition, Hillcrest Wind Ensemble Composition Contest, Dallas Winds Fanfare Competition The American Prize in Composition, Salford International Composers Contest, The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Composition Competition, and he was a recipient of Cuarteto Jose White’s “Nuestra America” Composition Award. In addition, Dr. Lowry has participated in Calls for Scores for the West Point Band Bicentennial, Cypress Symphonic Band, Brazosport Symphony, Joliet Symphony, and Ablaze Records Orchestral Masters Series, among others.
His music has been recorded by the Brno Philharmonic (Ablaze Records) and performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, the Kennedy Center, Chicago Symphony Hall, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and the Ryman Auditorium by ensembles such as the Nashville Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Rapides Symphony, West Point Band, Hillcrest Wind Ensemble, and Central Band of the Royal Air Force, among many others.
In his spare time, Dr. Lowry is an in-demand session musician in Nashville as well as a freelance recording engineer. His self-engineered and -produced debut solo CD, Milestones: New Music for Viola from the Third Millennium, released April 2021 on Centaur Records; his work as a violist, composer, and recording/mixing engineer can also be heard throughout Reflections: The Music of Dinos Constantinides, Niloufar Iravani, and Christopher Lowry, which released on Centaur in May 2022. He has also engineered and mastered multiple CDs for world-renowned viola virtuoso Elias Goldstein, all available on Centaur.
Lowry holds both doctorate and masters degrees from Louisiana State University, where he studied viola with Elias Goldstein and composition with the late Dinos Constantinides, and a bachelors degree from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he studied viola with Kathryn Plummer and John Kochanowski and composition with Michael Alec Rose, Michael Slayton, Michael Kurek and Stan Link.
Lowry resides in Hoover, AL, with his wife Casie and their orange tabby Ato.
Comments from Dr. Kyle Glaser, ASB’s Music Director:
"The Austin Symphonic Band is extremely pleased to be entering this creative partnership with Dr. Lowry. Christopher’s many accolades speak for themselves, and his creativity and musical skill are evident in his existing catalogue of works. ASB looks forward to bringing this new piece for band to life, and I am positive that this collaboration will bring about a substantive addition to the wind band repertoire.”
Addressing the selection process, Glaser continued:
“We were absolutely thrilled with the quantity and quality of applicants in our inaugural year. I would also like to recognize our five finalists, whose submissions deserved special commendation for their craft and artistry. This new endeavor by ASB helps us meet our mission of bringing new music to the community, and to see such excitement and eagerness by so many young composers who want to be a part of that is truly a wonderful thing.”
Acknowledgements:
The Austin Symphonic Band would also like to thank Dr. Jason Nam, Associate Director of Bands at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, for serving as an outside reviewer for the contest.
Dr. Lowry’s new work will be premiered by the Austin Symphonic Band at an indoor concert during the 2023-2024 season.