Brian Dowdy is a conductor, guitarist, and organizational leader committed to supporting the work of living music-makers and enriching the lives of community members through programming that expands artistic horizons, amplifies a diversity of voices, and creates courageous, compassionate world citizens. Brian currently serves as Artistic Director of the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra and Community Director with the American Composers Forum. His prior conducting positions include the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, Mississippi Valley Orchestra, Journey North Opera Company, the University of Minnesota Campus Orchestra Program, the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Sanctuary choir of St. Stephen’s Richmond.
Centering the music of living artists and artists from underrepresented and marginalized populations, Brian’s recent performances include music by such composers as Ulysses Kay, Alice Mary Smith, Florence Price, Emilie Mayer, Margaret Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, William Grant Still, and Augusta Holmes, and world premieres by Sahba Aminikia, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Andrew Yee, Nathan Hall, Yaz Lancaster, and Liza Sobel Crane.
In addition to symphonic works, Brian has recently led fully-staged productions of Don Giovanni, Hänsel und Gretel, Susannah, Le tragédie de Carmen, The Rape of Lucretia, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. His performance of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with Journey North Opera Company was named one of “The 10 concerts that shone brightest in 2019” by the Twin Cities’ Star Tribune.
Fueled by curiosity and playfulness, Brian’s more intimate collaborations explore a multiplicity of genres, disciplines, and time periods. Such collaborations have included joining the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble for a night of 20 premiers inspired by Beck Hansen’s Song Reader; recording Lou Harrison’s rediscovered guitar trio, Elegy for Harpo Marx; conducting and singing for an album of plainchant and renaissance motets; and performing with members of Cantus in a modified, semi-improvised compline service performed inside James Turrell’s Sky Pesher at the Walker Art Center.
Brian, his partner, and their son live, work, and play in the Twin Cities. When not making music, Brian can usually be found at the dojo practicing Aikido, the Japanese martial “art of peace,” or building, repairing and riding all manner of bicycles.