Peter Mowrey
Professor and Department Chair of Music - Music Theory, Composition, Piano and Electronic Music (On leave for Spring 2025)
Phone: 330-263-2049
Office: Scheide 206
Peter Mowrey is a composer, arranger, pianist, writer, and Professor of Music at the College of
Wooster in Ohio.
As a composer, Mowrey writes primarily chamber and electronic music, often inspired by
mythological themes. Among his more recent works are the electronic opera Sangreal, featuring
seven characters from different times and places within a dreamlike landscape, each in search of
the Grail; and Scars, a five-movement work for violin and piano based on poetry by Ioana Galu.
He is currently at work on his second electronic opera, N.D.E., a comedy-drama about an aging
rock star facing death and coming to grips with his checkered past. Some of Mowrey’s
compositions are featured on the album Music in Honor of Joseph Campbell (available for free
on YouTube), which features The Hero’s Path: Three Piano Pieces as well as the four-movement
electronic ballet The Masks of God.
Mowrey has also written dozens of orchestral arrangements for classic rock musicians,
including Jon Anderson (of Yes), Styx, Jefferson Starship, Donnie Iris, and Billy Jonas. These
have all been performed by the artists themselves accompanied by various orchestras in the
United States, Europe, and South America; several of these concerts have also been broadcast
worldwide on HDNet and other networks. The Styx arrangements are available on both the
CD/streaming and DVD/Blu-Ray/Amazon Prime Video versions of One with Everything,
featuring the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland.
As a pianist, Mowrey recently completed an eight-album recording of the solo piano music of
Dimitri Kabalevsky. Spanning eight albums, this is the only complete recording of Kabalevsky’s
solo piano oeuvre in existence; four works have never been available before in any format. The
entire collection can be heard free of charge on Mowrey’s YouTube channel, which also features
Les Contemporains, a two-volume collection of mid-twentieth-century French piano music.
A passionate movie buff, Mowrey also writes about film. His first book is Award Winning Films:
A Viewer’s Reference to 2700 Acclaimed Motion Pictures (McFarland & Company, 1994). His
second book on movies, The Hero’s Trail: Myth and Art in the American Western, 1903–1953,
was published in 2023. Mowrey is currently at work on its sequel, tentatively titled The Wild
Frontier: The American Western from the 1950s to Today.
As a Professor at the College of Wooster, Mowrey teaches music theory, composition, piano,
and electronic music. He has been at the College since 1997, and recently completed a three-year
term as Dean for Faculty Development (2016–2019). Mowrey holds a Bachelor of Music degree
in piano performance and a Master of Music in composition from the University of Georgia, and
a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University.
Wooster in Ohio.
As a composer, Mowrey writes primarily chamber and electronic music, often inspired by
mythological themes. Among his more recent works are the electronic opera Sangreal, featuring
seven characters from different times and places within a dreamlike landscape, each in search of
the Grail; and Scars, a five-movement work for violin and piano based on poetry by Ioana Galu.
He is currently at work on his second electronic opera, N.D.E., a comedy-drama about an aging
rock star facing death and coming to grips with his checkered past. Some of Mowrey’s
compositions are featured on the album Music in Honor of Joseph Campbell (available for free
on YouTube), which features The Hero’s Path: Three Piano Pieces as well as the four-movement
electronic ballet The Masks of God.
Mowrey has also written dozens of orchestral arrangements for classic rock musicians,
including Jon Anderson (of Yes), Styx, Jefferson Starship, Donnie Iris, and Billy Jonas. These
have all been performed by the artists themselves accompanied by various orchestras in the
United States, Europe, and South America; several of these concerts have also been broadcast
worldwide on HDNet and other networks. The Styx arrangements are available on both the
CD/streaming and DVD/Blu-Ray/Amazon Prime Video versions of One with Everything,
featuring the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland.
As a pianist, Mowrey recently completed an eight-album recording of the solo piano music of
Dimitri Kabalevsky. Spanning eight albums, this is the only complete recording of Kabalevsky’s
solo piano oeuvre in existence; four works have never been available before in any format. The
entire collection can be heard free of charge on Mowrey’s YouTube channel, which also features
Les Contemporains, a two-volume collection of mid-twentieth-century French piano music.
A passionate movie buff, Mowrey also writes about film. His first book is Award Winning Films:
A Viewer’s Reference to 2700 Acclaimed Motion Pictures (McFarland & Company, 1994). His
second book on movies, The Hero’s Trail: Myth and Art in the American Western, 1903–1953,
was published in 2023. Mowrey is currently at work on its sequel, tentatively titled The Wild
Frontier: The American Western from the 1950s to Today.
As a Professor at the College of Wooster, Mowrey teaches music theory, composition, piano,
and electronic music. He has been at the College since 1997, and recently completed a three-year
term as Dean for Faculty Development (2016–2019). Mowrey holds a Bachelor of Music degree
in piano performance and a Master of Music in composition from the University of Georgia, and
a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University.