PUT-IN-BAY — Even if you follow classical music, you likely don’t know the once-famous American composer Leo Sowerby (1895-1968).

Sowerby, who once won the Pulitzer Prize for music and was once known as “the Dean of American church music,” had a long association with Put-in-Bay through his participation in a church choir summer camp that existed for decades.

In recent years, there have been new efforts to revive interest in his music with recordings of his music and the first biography of his career.

Sowerby taught at Camp Wa-Li-Ro, a summer choir camp at Put-in-Bay that operated from 1933 to the mid-1970s. The practice sessions were hosted at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Put-in-Bay.

Boys came from all over the U.S. to attend the camp for Episcopal and Anglican choristers, according to a history page at the church’s website. When the boys weren’t singing, they hiked, canoed, fished and swam.

Sowerby was teaching again at Wa-Li-Ro when he became ill and died on July 7, 1968, in Port Clinton, at age 73.

He was a Pulitzer winner

The Pulitzer Prize for Music was awarded in 1945 to Aaron Copland for his ballet, “Appalachian Spring.” In 1947, it was given to composer Charles Ives for his “Symphony No. 3.” Both of these are famous pieces that are often performed and which have been recorded over and over again.

In between those two, the 1946 prize was awarded to Sowerby for his cantata, “Canticle of the Sun.” No recording of the piece was made during Sowerby’s lifetime.

During his career, Sowerby wrote a great deal of vocal music for church services. But he also wrote five symphonies, dozens of chamber music works and even some jazz pieces, according to his biographer, Joseph Sargent, a professor at the University of Alabama’s music school.

In his time, Sowerby was a famous composer, Sargent said.

“During the 1920s and 1930s, he was very well known in concert halls, not just in his native Chicago but nationally as well,” Sargent said in an interview released by the publisher of his biography.

His music 'fell off the radar'

Sowerby, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1895, began writing music when he was 10. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra played his violin concerto in 1913.

He was a longtime choirmaster and organist at St. James Episcopal Church in Chicago, a big church led by Chicago’s Episcopal bishop. Sowerby later went to Washington National Cathedral where he was the founding director of the College of Church Musicians.

During all of that time, Sowerby composed more than 500 pieces of music. Much of it remains almost unknown, although people who play or sing music in church often will know his name, Sargent told the Register.

“One of the challenges with Sowerby is that his reception history has been very uneven. If you're a professional organist, you definitely know his name thanks to his dozens of influential organ works," Sargent said. "Many Episcopal church musicians also appreciate Sowerby as one of the most important American composers of sacred music."

Much of his other music, “has really fallen off the radar,” he said.

Part of that neglect may stem from the fact that Sowerby was considered a bit old-fashioned by some.

“Unlike many New York-based American modernists, not to mention people like Stravinsky or Schoenberg, he never sought a clean break with 19th-century Romanticism," Sargent told the Register. "He continued to adapt older forms and techniques in modern contexts, rather than emphasizing avant-garde intellectualism or experimental impulses, though a few of his works certainly could be classified as experimental.

“Narratives of musical history typically privilege experimental and/or populist figures as carrying the greatest influence in 20th-century America, and so Sowerby suffers within this framework,” he said.

Efforts made to revive his work

There have been various efforts to revive Sowerby’s name.

In 2015, Janice Weber, a Boston-based classical pianist and novelist, released “Seascapes,” a collection of piano pieces. It includes a Sowerby piece, “The Shining Big Sea Water,” a 1926 composition inspired by Lake Superior.

Two of the most important efforts to revive Sowerby’s reputation include the first-ever biography of Sowerby and a series of recordings of his music issued by Cedille, a classical music label based in Chicago.

Sargent’s biography, simply entitled “Leo Sowerby,” was published in 2024 by the University of Illinois Press and remains available both as a hardcover and an ebook.

The book was published as part of the publisher's "American Composers" series, which profiles many interesting composers.

"Lou Harrison," by Leta E. Miller and Fredric Lieberman, another book in the series, profiles a California-based composer. Harrison died in 2003 while traveling to Columbus where he was supposed to star in a six-day festival at The Ohio State University devoted to his music.

Sargent got interested in Sowerby while performing with the Choir of Men and Boys at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, which did many of Sowerby’s pieces. Sargent came to believe that Sowerby deserved more recognition.

How to listen to his music

Cedille Records’ catalog lists nine albums that have recordings of Sowerby’s music.

The albums include “The Pulitzer Project,” which has recordings of three Pulitzer Prize winners:

• Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”

• William Schuman’s “A Free Song,” the 1943 winner

• Sowerby’s “The Canticle of the Sun”

The record, which features the Grant Park orchestra and chorus, led by Carlos Kalmar, came out in 2011, finally making a recording of Sowerby’s award-winning piece available. It’s available at the usual streaming services, like Spotify, and for purchase from online outlets, like Amazon.

Sargent said that “The Canticle of the Sun” is a fascinating piece.

“The text is a sacred poem, composed by Saint Francis of Assisi, yet Sowerby himself insisted the piece was not religious. Instead he deliberately drew on older formal and technical features of secular music, things like fugue and ritornello form," Sargent said. "The piece combines intense drama with quieter expressive moments and some truly lovely passages. And, as always with Sowerby, he takes great care to match his music with the sentiments of the text.”

Sowerby also influenced American music in another way.

He had many music students, including Florence Price, a Black composer. Price’s music was largely ignored for years, but it has been experiencing a revival, with performances and many new recordings.

Sowerby supported Price at a time when it was risky to his own career to do so, Sargent said.

“Unfortunately, we don't have much evidence of their precise relationship, but one letter does survive from Sowerby to Price. She had evidently asked for advice on a matter concerning the National Association for American Composers and Conductors," Sargent said. "And though Sowerby wasn't in a direct position to help, he expresses his full support.”

The handwritten letter, available online in the University of Arkansas digital archives, shows that Sowerby suggested that Price write directly to the national association. Sowerby wrote that Price could mention Sowerby’s name if that would be helpful.

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