Jerry Nowak is Professor Emeritus of Music at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where he taught from 1969 to 2005. With
over 860 published compositions and arrangements for instrumental and vocal ensembles, Jerry is one of the most widely published composers and
arrangers of the past forty years.
Jerry studied composition and orchestration with Lucien Cailliet (arranger for the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and Eugene
Ormandy), clarinet with Charles Russo, voice with Herbert Pate, and choral conducting with Dr. Finley Williamson. He holds a Bachelor of Science in
Music Education and Master of Music Composition from The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College). Jerry has appeared extensively
throughout the United States as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator. He has lectured at many colleges and universities throughout North
America and Australia.
Early in his career he worked as a woodwind doubler and session singer in New York and Philadelphia. He toured with Burt Bacharach and played with
many big bands, jazz and R&B groups on the east coast. He is a founding and active member of the Philadelphia Saxophone Quartet and New Jersey
Saxophone Quartet, who released their first CD entitled “Introducing the New Jersey Saxophone Quartet” in 2003.
Jerry has an international reputation for his innovations in the techniques and teaching of expressive phrasing. In 2002 Carl Fischer published
Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians, a ground-breaking conducting text co-authored by Jerry with his brother Henry Nowak. His phrasing book
series, The Art of Expressive Playing (also co-authored with Henry) was published in October 2004 by Carl Fischer, and is recognized as the first and
only comprehensive text book on expressive performance.
Jerry has conducted numerous professional recording sessions in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and London, England. He has appeared as
guest conductor with the Delaware Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, and is currently conductor of the Delaware Valley Wind Symphony. He is also the
conductor and arranger for Jim Gafgen, a popular tenor who performs in the New York and Philadelphia areas.
In January 2008 Jerry completed his twenty-third season of teaching in Sydney on behalf of the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association in
New South Wales. In 2003 the association named the Jerry Nowak Conducting Summer School in his honor.
Jerry appears in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 editions of Who's Who in America, published by Marquis.
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