Janis Bowden, Band Instructor

 Janis Bowden was born and raised in Chicago and area into a musical family.  She is a 4^th generation musician/educator and her adult children are 5^th generation musicians.  She primarily took lessons from her mother on piano, grandmother on piano and in voice, and her grandfather on clarinet.  As she got older, took lessons on piano and drama at the Fine Arts School on Michigan Avenue.  Each year she entered the Illinois Federation of Music Clubs’recitals in all areas of performance.  Her mother and grandmother were the heads of the Vozzella-Bowden Junior Music Club of which Ms. Bowden was heavily involved.  After graduation from Willowbrook HS in Villa Park, IL, she enrolled at the University of  Dubuque as a Music Education major with emphasis in instrumental music, taking lessons from Professor Sladky and playing alongside him in the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra (on clarinet).  Ms. Bowden minored in piano and partook in all the vocal music groups with wonderful memories of trip to Expo ’74 to the NW U.S. with the Collegiate Singers, a swing choir of which Ms. Bowden was a charter member.

 Upon graduation Ms. Bowden applied for middle school band but wasn’t common for women to be in that position at that time.  So took a vocal/general music teaching job at Dallas Center-Grimes for two years, putting on musicals West Side Story and Wizard of Oz.  She had K-6 and high school at that time.  She and her husband had their first child in 1979 and Ms. Bowden decided to stay at home with temp jobs in their formative years.

The second child came along two years later.  So, teaching came back into the picture, this time in the DMPS in mid-80’s.  And finally was given the chance at band…first at Lincoln HS as half-time director and eventually at Callanan Middle School for over 20 years, always along with several elementary schools.  In 2007 she put in for a transfer to teach only elementary band and has enjoyed that immensely.  She now has a total of 9 schools on the east side and a few on the near-west side.

Other interests are giving a limited amount of piano lessons after school hours, is a member of Mu Phi Epsilon which is a music fraternity for women and men, is an elder at her church, spends time with her husband Mike and visits her children in NYC and Minneapolis as often as possible.  Recent vacation spot is at Magnetic Lake north of Grand Marais near Gunflint Lodge on an island that is privately owned by some family members.  It’s a great atmosphere for relaxation including fishing!  This will now become a yearly summer tradition.