John Michael Pekowski

A native-born Texan, John Michael Pekowski, PhD (b.1975) began composing music at the age of 11. Simple improvisations on the family upright piano were followed by electronic compositions in BASIC code on the TI-99 computer. In elementary school, John was a member of the state championship winning Abilene Aztec soccer team. In junior high (1988) he was elected President of the Science Club, served as Social Chairman of the band, was awarded the John Philip Sousa Award, and was a featured soloist on trumpet. In high school (1994) John was section leader, co-principal trumpet of LYSO, Jazz One soloist (TTU Band Camp), and TMEA All-State Concert Band participant.

While studying at Texas Tech, he was a soloist in TTU Jazz One and a member of the Marching and Symphonic bands. He recorded with free-improvisation ensemble YATE, and his PHD dissertation (TTU, Fine Arts/Music Composition, 2007) greatly advanced our understanding of the hierarchical organization of pitch-interval cycles within a voice-leading context. He studied trumpet with Will Strieder; piano with Paul English; music theory with Matthew Santa, Edward Pearsall, and Peter Martens; and composition with Mary Jeanne van Appledorn, Teresa LeVelle, and Steven Paxton.

In 2021, John’s composition Forest of the Birdsong had its world premiere at the Buddy Holly Hall’s Crickets Theatre performed by David Dees on soprano saxophone, and Nataliya Sukhina on piano.

In 2024, John was honored to be chosen as a Fellow at the Texas New Music Festival wherein his compositions Jest of Moonlit Point for Pierrot Quintet (conducted by Bill Tacket, performed by Meg Griffith on piccolo, Poppy Beddoe clarinet, Emily Zelaya on violin, Daniel Saenz on cello, and Xuefei Liu on piano) and Brookhollow Bayou for solo flute (performed by Meg Griffith) were premiered.

Dr. Pekowski continues to compose classical instrumental. His interest lies in quasi-symmetrical ordered sets. Recent works include Three Piano Suites (2016-2019), Suite for Trumpet and Piano (2020), Suite for Violin and Piano (2021), String Quartet Suites No.1-9 (2021-2023), String Quintet Suites No.1-6 (2019-2023), String Sextet No. 1 (2019-2023), Suite for Orchestra (2023-2024), Jest of Moonlit Point for Pierrot Quintet (2023-2024), and Brookhollow Bayou for solo flute (2023-2024).