Staff

Lakeland Philharmonia Conductor

Brian McGowan is a music educator, composer, and conductor based in New Jersey.  He served as the Conductor of the Intermezzo Orchestra of the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra from 2016 through 2023, and has been the Director of Orchestras for the William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge since 2006.    He continues to program the classic repertoire, while also reaching for innovation in new music, conducting six composition world premieres, including student compositions,  as well as premieres by professional composers such as Mark Fabio, New York University Faculty member Youngmi Ha, and commissioned a work by Kennedy Center for the Art’s Fellow Reena Esmail.   

As a conductor, Brian was selected as the Central Jersey Music Educators Association Regional Conductor in 2009 and 2013, and was the guest conductor for the New Jersey Music Educators Association Allstate Orchestra 2017, while serving as the Allstate rehearsal conductor numerous times, as well as other guest conducting appearances.  During the summer of 2018, he was chosen as a participant in the International Conductors Master Class under the tutelage of Markand Thakar and Michael Avagliano.  

Brian holds a B.A. in music education with a concentration in Double Bass and Composition for New Jersey City University and a M.A. in Composition at Montclair State University, where he studied composition with Ting Ho and conducting with Paul Hostetter.

Brian currently resides in Bedminster, NJ with his two young sons, Lachlan and Eamonn.