Leo Sowerby

Leo Salkeld Sowerby was an American composer and church musician. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1946 and was often called the “Dean of American church music” in the early to mid-20th century. His many students included Florence Price and Ned Rorem.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Leo Sowerby.

From the period sources

Leo Sowerby, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1895, emerged as a “gifted American composer” and a notable figure among the younger generation, according to The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924). He pursued his studies in Chicago, where he established himself as a composer from 1913, also teaching at the American Conservatory and contributing as a critic, as noted in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians: American Supplement (1920). His early recognition included performances by the American Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, which exclusively presented American compositions. This ensemble brought forward his “Homage to English Country-Folk,” a symphonic poem titled “The Sorrows of Midath,” a violin concerto, and a “Marching-Song” for strings and piano, as detailed in Grove’s (1920). By 1924, The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians further recorded that Sowerby had studied with Lampert, A. O. Anderson, and Percy Grainger, served as an organist at the South Congregational Church, and was a bandmaster in the artillery during the war. A significant achievement was his being sent to Rome on a prize-scholarship in 1922, underscoring his rising prominence.