OUR COMPOSERS

 

Lee Gwozdz

 

Lee Gwozdz serves as Director of Music for Corpus Christi Cathedral, Corpus Christi, Texas, and as Executive Director of The Cathedral Concert Series, both posts he has held for the past 27 years. Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey, Bishop of Corpus Christi recently appointed Lee as Director of Music for the Diocese of Corpus Christi. In addition, he free lances as a Symphony Pops Conductor for the Corpus Christi and Kingsville Symphony Orchestras. Currently, Lee is a member of the National Board of the American Federation of Pueri Cantores. He is a two-term past member of the Choristers Guild National Board of Directors, and a former Board Member of the Director of Music Ministry Division of the National Pastoral Musicians. In 2004, he was honored as “Musician of the Year” by his colleagues of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.

A native of Ft. Worth, Texas, Lee graduated from Texas Christian University with a major in music education and a minor in organ performance. Through the Chorister‟s Guild Leadership Training Program, Lee studied with Helen Kemp and John Yarrington. Personal mentoring in choral skills combined the best of Lee‟s experiences with Paul Salamunovich, Mike Kemp, Ronald Shirey, Lara Hoggard, Bev Hensen and his former Cathedral colleague the Reverend Gregory Labus.

As a festival conductor and clinician, Lee has presented workshops on working with adult and children‟s choirs throughout the United States. He recently served as clinician for the National Choristers Guild Director‟s Enrichment Seminars held in Asheville, Philadelphia and St. Augustine in 2011. He is highly sought after as a clinician for children‟s voices and conductor of children‟s choir festivals and has expanded his reputation as a leading adult choir festival clinician. Renowned children‟s choral clinician Helen Kemp states, “Lee has become one of our country‟s leading church musicians. His exceptional work at Corpus Christi Cathedral is exemplary. His expertise, enthusiasm, wit, and imagination will help children want to "sing a new song‟ with accuracy, beauty and joy!”