David Mairs
Music Director
In 2011-2012, David Mairs will celebrate his sixteenth season as Music Director of the Mid-Texas Symphony. Concert attendees enjoy the wonderful performances he inspires Mid-Texas Symphony musicians to create and his engaging, natural way of sharing his knowledge about the music, its history, and its composers.
Mairs began his professional career playing Solo Horn for the elite U.S. Army Band in Washington, D.C. Following his military service, he became Associate Principal Horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Solo Horn of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet, and a member of the New Pittsburgh Quintet brass ensemble.
Mairs’ interest in conducting led him to the Flint Symphony where he served as Assistant Conductor and Music Administrator. He moved to the San Antonio Symphony in 1988 where he served as Resident Conductor until 1999, directing classical concerts, audience-pleasing pops, and educational and family concerts. Mairs also hosted the weekly “Symphony Spotlight” on KPAC radio.
Mairs has conducted leading orchestras around the country including the Houston, Dallas, Colorado Springs, Dayton, Saginaw Bay, Phoenix, Charlotte, West Shore, Kansas City, and Ft. Worth symphonies. He is an annual guest conductor with the Flint Symphony.
Mairs has been a leading Texas music educator for over 35 years, and was named Denton ISD’s 2010 Teacher of the Year, and frequently directs the Austin Symphony educational and family concerts. Mairs has served as Conductor of Orchestras at UTSA, Music and Administrative Director of the North East School of the Arts, and Music Director of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. Mairs has led sessions of the League of American Orchestras Conductors’ Workshop, designed to teach up-and-coming conductors their craft.
Mairs’s passion for education and talent for communicating with audiences of all ages make the annual Mid-Texas Symphony’s Children’s Concerts outstanding, yet fun, educational experiences. As the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise wrote, Mairs “is looking for a lot more than offering students a unique experience. He’s looking to change lives.”
In addition to conducting, Mairs composes and arranges orchestral, band, and choral music. His compositions include “Lacrimosa et Benedictus (For the Victims),” written in response to the events of 9/11; this work will be featured on September 11, 2011 when the Mid-Texas Symphony opens its 34th season. Mairs has arranged numerous choral and orchestral works, including many for children’s chorus heard at the Mid-Texas Symphony annual Christmas concert.
Mairs holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. His wife Beth is a retired music educator and member of the Mid-Texas Symphony horn section.
Assistant Conductor Dr. Eugene Dowdy will begin his sixteenth year as head of orchestral studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he serves as the music director and conductor of the UTSA Orchestra and conductor of the UTSA Lyric Theatre. Dowdy has collaborated with such distinguished artists as opera composer Seymour Barab (world premiere), jazz greats Chris and Dan Brubeck, cellist Ken Freudigman, violinist and Cactus Pear Music Festival Director Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, and the internationally celebrated Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan. In 2010 the UTSA Orchestra was one of six orchestras chosen to perform with the progressive rock band KANSAS on their national Symphony Rocks! tour. Under Dowdy’s leadership, the UTSA Orchestra performed in Monterrey and Saltillo at the invitation of the Mexican government and with the All State College Choir at the Texas Music Education Association conference.
Eugene Dowdy
Assistant Conductor
Dowdy is an active guest conductor of regional orchestras, festivals and contests throughout Texas and the Midwest, including nine summers on the faculty at Interlochen. Recent engagements include the Georgia and Iowa All-State Orchestras, Mexico’s Camerata de Coahuila, and the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio where he serves as Resident Conductor. Dowdy is the founding director of the UTSA String Project, a nationally-recognized music teacher training program.
Active in many professional and honorary music organizations, Dowdy is past President of the Texas Chapter of the American String Teachers Association and of the Texas Orchestra Directors Association. He has performed as a section violinist with the Mid-Texas Symphony many times, including some concerts with his late father, Warren Dowdy, a horn player who performed with the Mid-Texas Symphony in the 1970s and 80s.
Dowdy received a Doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Iowa under James Dixon, a Master’s degree in music education from UTSA, and a Bachelor’s degree with a Violin Performance Certificate from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife Stacy count two musicians as daughters, Jessica (piano) and Rachel (cello).
Laurie Jenschke
Choral Director
Laurie Jenschke, Choral Director and Director of the TLU/MTS Community Music Academy, has been a choral director, music educator, and performer for the past 30 years. She founded the Fredericksburg Children’s Chorale, the Fredericksburg Chorale, the Canto Chamber Choir, the Eastman Children’s Choir and the Eastman Youth Choir. She has directed church choirs in Austin and Fredericksburg.
Laurie’s choral groups have been featured at the Rheinland Pfalz Summer Children’s Choral Festival in Kaiserlautern, Germany; the Texas Music Educator’s Convention; the International Kathaumiux in British Columbia; the American Choral Director’s Southwest Region Convention; the Peterborough Music Festival in Peterborough, England; and the Governor’s mansion in Albany, New York.
In addition to directing the Community Music Academy, Laurie teaches private voice, voice classes and general music classes at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin. Under her leadership, the Community Music Academy has expanded, adding the TLU/MTS Community Music Academy Youth Choir and Lindenbaum Training Choir for all 1st -3rd grade Seguin ISD at Patlan Elemenatary School, an outreach strings education program at Navarro and Seguin ISDs, and individual and group lessons on classical guitar.
Laurie has performed as a soloist and in professional choirs in the U.S. and abroad, including recitals, opera and musical theater, and oratorio.
Laurie is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin with an undergraduate degree in music education, and of UTSA with a master’s degree in conducting.