Leo Sowerby

   Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) was an American composer, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and trained at the American Conservatory in Chicago. He served as a bandmaster during World War I, and was the winner of the first music fellowship awarded by the American Academy in Rome. Many of his compositions, especially his organ and choral works, (such as Symphony for Organ (1930); Suite (1933) for organ; Te Deum in D Minor (1936) and Forsaken of Men (1942) for mixed chorus and organ; and Canticle of the Sun (1943) for mixed chorus and orchestra, became well known in the United States and England. Sowerby wrote more than fifty works in all forms, including the overture Comes Autumn Time (1916); Irish Washerwoman (1916) for orchestra; Sonata (1922) for violin and piano; the symphonic poem Prairie (1929); Symphony No. 3 (1940), and Sonata (1945) for trumpet and piano.