Faith DeBow
Pianist Faith DeBow is sought after for both solo and collaborative performances as well as choral accompaniment and teaching. She enjoys a vibrant career based in the Central Texas region, where she joined the Texas State University faculty in 2001. She has performed in over a dozen US states and eight countries, and has played solo concerts at the National Conservatory of Panama and for the US Ambassador to Panama. Ms. DeBow’s playing has been heard in outer space at the International Space Station, performing Christmas music on video for astronauts working there during the holiday season.
Ms. DeBow has performed with opera singer Renée Fleming; conductors Peter Bay, Anton Coppola, Craig Hella Johnson, and Sebastian Lang-Lessing; and has performed the works of composers Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Roberto Sierra, and Michael Schelle. She has also premiered works by Donald Grantham, Cary Ratcliff, Jake Runestad, and John Muehleisen. In 2012, Ms. DeBow commissioned and premiered Brilliant Sky, a solo piano work by Colin Sorgi. She has served as rehearsal pianist in premieres composed by Stephen Paulus, Kevin Puts, Nico Muhly, Tarik O’Regan, Dan Welcher, Eric Banks, and Robert Kyr.
Faith maintains a longstanding collaboration with the Grammy®-winning choral ensemble, Conspirare. Her most recent project with Conspirare in May 2016, featuring the music of Stephen Paulus, toured in two Texas cities; St. Paul and Northfield, Minnesota; and the western Canada cities of Calgary and Edmonton.
Ms. DeBow has also performed with the choir in Texas cities such as San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fredericksburg, Round Top, and its home base of Austin. Outside the state, she toured the greater US: New York City, San Francisco, Omaha, Oklahoma City, and Goshen (Indiana); internationally, Copenhagen, Paris, and Saint-Lo (France).
In November 2012, she toured France with Conspirare, where the group gave six invited performances at the Polyfollia Festival and one concert in Paris. In 2008, at the Copenhagen 8th World Symposium on Choral Music, Conspirare performed American music and premiered the Light Mass for chorus, two pianos, bass and drumset by Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miskinis.
Ms. DeBow also regularly performs with Musica Viva’s Susan Doering (violin), and Dieter Wulfhorst (cello) across California’s Central Valley.
In 2010, she traveled to Reykjavik to collaborate with Tim Buzbee, Principal Tuba of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. DeBow and Buzbee gave a recital at the Hallgrimskirkja national cathedral and recorded a CD for Albany Records, Angels and Demons. Her performances have been broadcast on PBS, NPR’s Performance Today, Minnesota Public Radio, Georgia Public Radio, KPAC San Antonio, KMFA Austin, Victoria Public Television, and Victoria Public Radio. Ms. DeBow appeared in Conspirare’s one-hour television special for PBS broadcast nationally in March 2009; the CD of that concert, A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert, was nominated for a 2010 Grammy® Award for "Best Classical Crossover Album.”
Faith DeBow has also recorded for Harmonia Mundi with Conspirare (Pablo Neruda: The Poet Sings, 2015 and Samuel Barber: An American Romantic, 2012). The Neruda CD received a 2015 Grammy® Nomination for “Best Choral Performance.” She has recorded for Albany Records with tuba player Tim Buzbee (Angels and Demons, 2012, featuring Sonata del Angel Caido by Ferrer Ferran; Apocalyptic Voices by James Meador; and Three Miniatures for Tuba and Piano by Anthony Plog).
Faith has served as collaborative pianist and Young Artist Coordinator on the leadership team of the Victoria Bach Festival since 2010. She teaches class piano and collaborative piano as a Senior Lecturer at Texas State University, a position she has held since 2001. She also accompanies instrumental students at Trinity University and is the pianist for the boy choir at the historic San Antonio Academy. Ms. DeBow often plays orchestral keyboard with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. DeBow was honored in the 2010 edition of Who’s Who in America, and the 2007 Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Educators. Faith holds a master's degree in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music; a competitive swimmer while at Butler University, she earned her bachelor's degree in Piano Performance. Ms. DeBow is also a singer and plays the harpsichord and organ.