Biography

Hailed for his works “filled with terrific orchestral color and weight, not to mention feeling” (Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun) written with a “sense of creative imperative” (David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer), composer, performer and teacher Douglas Buchanan (b. 1984, Westfield, NY) currently resides in Baltimore, MD where he serves as Organist and Choirmaster at Historic Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. He began formal composition study with Peter Mowrey and Jack Gallagher at the College of Wooster, where he also trained as an organist and conductor, serving as Organist and Conducting Assistant of the Wooster Chorus. He currently studies with renowned composer Michael Hersch in the D.M.A. Composition program at the Peabody Conservatory. Previous degrees include Piano Performance (B.Mus., the College of Wooster), Composition (M.Mus., the Peabody Conservatory), and Music Theory Pedagogy (M.Mus., the Peabody Conservatory).

Douglas has been commissioned by institutions including the Annapolis Opera, the Peabody Opera, the Peabody Dance Department, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Baltimore, and the University of Tulsa; ensembles including the Figaro Project, Rhymes with Opera, mode iv, the Lunar Ensemble, and the Peabody Children’s Chorus; and has also been commissioned by world-renowned poet and Shostakovich collaborator Yevgeny Yevtoshenko. His works have been read and performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony in C, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the Wooster Chorus and the Peabody Wind Ensemble. Previous composition study also includes lessons with Libby Larsen, Nicholas Maw, Chen Yi, and Melissa Hui, and masterclasses with Christopher Rouse, Christopher Theofanidis, and Karel Husa. Also a visual artist and poet, Douglas has illustrated and co-authored books with Continuum Publishing and Lantern Books.

As a liturgical musician, Douglas currently serves as Organist and Choirmaster at Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, where he conducts the St. Paul’s Singers, the St. Paul’s Camerata, and the St. Paul’s Choir of Men and Boys, the second oldest choir of its kind in the nation. He has been named three times as Music Director for the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. Prior to his appointment at Old St. Paul’s, he served as Organist and Choirmaster at St. Mark’s-on-the-Hill Episcopal Church in Pikesville, Maryland. Additionally, Douglas is active as a teacher, serving as adjunct Music Theory Faculty at the Peabody Conservatory, and adjunct Composition, Theory and Conducting Faculty at Towson University. As a performer, Douglas presents solo recitals of piano and organ works, and also sings alongside his wife in the Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s Symphonic, Full, and Chamber Choruses.

Douglas has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants for his compositions, including the Presser Award funding the East Coast tour of his virtuosic piano cycle Colonnades, and a Peabody Career Development Grant for the recording of his choral works. He was selected as a member of the 2012 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Student Composer Readings for his work Malleus, which subsequently won the 2012 Macht Competition for Best Orchestral Score as well as the 2013 Symphony in C Young Composer’s Award.