Charles Dowd, principal timpanist of the Eugene Symphony
for 35 years, died of pancreatic cancer, Wednesday. He was 61 years old. Dowd, who also performed with the Oregon Bach Festival for many years, recently retired
from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance where he was a Philip H.
Knight professor of music and a faculty performing artist.
A statement from the Eugene Symphony:
Born in New
York, Charles was a scholarship graduate student of famed New York Philharmonic
timpanist, Saul Goodman at The Juilliard School. Dowd holds a master's degree
from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from the San Jose State School
of Music where he studied under Anthony J. Cirone of the San Francisco
Symphony.Charles’
performed with the finest musical organizations in the Pacific Northwest
including the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Oregon Mozart
Players, Oregon Festival of American Music, the Peter Britt Festival, the
Sunriver Music Festival, the Cascade Festival, the Oregon Coast Festival, Oregon
Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Chamber Music Northwest.
Dowd has performed
in Stuttgart, Paris, in Canada, and in most of the fifty United States. In New
York, he performed at RCA "Studio A," National Studios, Carnegie Hall, Avery
Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Paul Hall, and several off-Broadway venues,
playing contemporary classical music and jazz.Dowd has made
many solo appearances, recently performing the Percussion Concerto by Joseph
Schwantner, Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra by William Kraft, Concerto for
Percussion by Darius Milhaud, 27'10.554" for a Percussionist by John Cage,
Moonsticks for Solo Marimba by Meyer Kupferman, and many other works. The
New York Times called Dowd's playing "virtuosic," and maestro Dennis Russell
Davies wrote that Dowd is "one of the finest timpanists and percussionists in
the USA."
His
publications include at least nine books that include warm-ups, technique
builders, etudes and exercises to develop well-rounded percussionists in a wide
range of styles and for a wide cross section of percussion instruments,
published through Columbia Pictures Publications, Columbia Pictures Media Group,
and Alfred Publishing Company. His numerous practical, insightful, and
important pedagogical writings have appeared in the Percussive Arts Society’s
Percussive Notes, the Oregon Music Educator, and Jazzscene, to name just a few.
His outstanding teaching reputation has led him to fulfill guest teaching and
performing residencies at colleges and universities from Alaska, British
Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Texas, and Washington in the west
to Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee to the
east. Dowd has
recorded on Warner Bros., MusicMasters, Hänssler Classics, Black Saint-Soul Note
(Milan), Soundspells (New York), PAUSA, cdm-USA, KM Los Angeles, and projects
for RCA and Sony.
When asked
about his most memorable Eugene Symphony experience in an interview last month,
Charles replied, "For 35 years, I have really enjoyed all of the concerts; we
play great music with great conductors."