Composer Information

Pianist / Conductor Kurt Cowling hails from Milwaukee, Wiscosnin. Besides his nearly twenty year association with Five By Design, he spent thirteen years as keyboardist in the jazz fusion band 'Streetlife', which is also the 'House Band of the Milwaukee Bucks' NBA basketball team. He has performed with various groups throughout North America and Europe and will be traveling to China to perform in spring 2006. Kurt has composed and arranged music for many theatrical productions (classical and popular) for the American Players Theatre (six seasons), Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Milwaukee Dance Theater, First Stage Children's Theater (where he worked with Broadway composer Charles Strouse, composer of 'Annie' and 'Bye, Bye, Birdie') and others. Kurt also composes and records commercial music and 'jingles' for advertising, including two national spots for Miller Lite and Trident Gum. His jingles can be heard on radio and television throughout the Milwaukee-Chicago area. Kurt does freelance arranging for Hal Leonard, Inc., the world's largest publisher of sheet music. He is currently working on an instructional book on playing Gospel music, which he does frequently with gospel singer Kenneth L. Daniel, Sr. and with the gospel choir at his home church in Milwaukee.