Introduction

Biography

Leo was the son of John Sow­er­by and Flo­rence Ger­trude Sal­keld.

He be­gan com­po­sing at age ten. Ear­ly re­cog­ni­tion came in 1913, when the Chi­ca­go Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra pre­miered his vio­lin con­cer­to.

In 1919, Sow­er­by be­came as­so­ci­ate or­gan­ist at the Fourth Pres­by­te­ri­an Church of Chicago. In 1921, he won the Rome Prize from the Am­er­ican Aca­de­my in Rome, the first com­pos­er to re­ceive the award.

In 1927, he be­came or­gan­ist-choir­mas­ter at St James’ Epis­co­pal Church, Chi­ca­go, which was con­se­crat­ed as a ca­thed­ral while he was there (1955). In 1946, he re­ceived the Pul­itz­er Prize for Mu­sic for his can­ta­ta Can­ti­cle of the Sun.

In 1962, af­ter his re­tire­ment from St James’, Sow­er­by was called to Wash­ing­ton Na­tion­al Ca­thed­ral to be the first di­rect­or of the Col­lege of Church Mu­si­cians, a po­si­tion he held un­til his death.

Sowerby com­posed ov­er 500 works in ev­ery genre but op­era and bal­let. His lat­er works, done at St James’, Chi­ca­go, and the Na­tion­al Ca­thed­ral, are pri­mar­i­ly church mu­sic for choir and or­gan.

Sowerby’s no­ta­ble pu­pils in­clude Ro­bert Bea­dell, Mi­ri­am Clapp Dun­can, Will­iam Fer­ris, Ed­win Fiss­ing­er, Mi­lan Ka­der­a­vek, Gail Ku­bik, Ro­land Leich, Dar­win Leitz, Nor­man Lu­boff, May­lon Mer­rill (Jack Ben­ny’s long­time mu­sic di­rect­or), Ger­ald Near, Will­iam Part­ridge, Flo­rence Price, Ned Ro­rem, Ro­nald Stal­ford, Ro­bert Stew­art, and Da­vid Van Vac­tor.