JUSTIN P. COWAN

FINDING MUSIC ​INSIDE THE STORY

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As a theatre professional, my career began as a Musical Director/Conductor.  Working as a Musical Director across the country at many regional theatres, I began to find a love not just for creating beautiful music, but for creating stories in which beautiful music could live.  As this passion for story-telling began to grow, I soon found myself facing a new career path.  Would I be content to continue only telling stories through songs? Or would I go further, and also begin to tell stories from my own point of view?

 

The answers to these questions became clear when I was hired as the Artistic Director of the BIG ARTS Herb Strauss Theatre on Sanibel Island, Florida. During my tenure as Artistic Director I became invigerated by the reality and need for cultivating an audience, finding an identity for the theatre, and telling stories from my own point of view with the collaboration of designers, actors, and other directors by my side.

 

Since that time, I have continued to invest in this new passion through both Masters and Doctoral Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  I completed my Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting, with a specialized secondary concentration in Directing through the University's MFA in Directing program in 2018.  I currently serve as the Department Chair of Theatre Arts at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT...about an hour outside of NYC.
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As my professional career has continued to evolve and I still discover stories that I want to tell, my roots in music are still ever present.  As a director, I am always searching for the music inside the story. 

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