In taking the baton as director of bands for Lowndes High School and the award-winning Georgia Bridgemen, Jon Bowman knows he has his work cut out for him.
“I’ve got some big shoes to fill considering the work of Mr. Todd,” Bowman said in a phone interview Wednesday with The Valdosta Daily Times.
After 10 years as the Georgia Bridgemen’s director, winning numerous awards and leading the Lowndes High band to the Macy’s parade, a presidential inaugural, two international broadcasts from Disney World, and more, Charles E. Todd II is retiring this year.
Jon Bowman has been hired to follow Todd. Bowman promises “no drastic changes. I will be the only change.”
He will keep the Bridgemen’s long-time assistant directors as his support staff. He plans to continue entertaining crowds, supporting the Vikings football team, and hopefully continue winning awards in band competitions.
The Bridgemen provide a new challenge for Bowman. In the past, he has had to build high school band programs. At Lowndes High, he knows the challenge will be to keep the successful momentum of the Bridgemen tradition going.
Bowman has spent the past four years leading the “Pride of Prattville” Marching Band at Prattville High School in Prattville, Ala. Bowman’s duties also include “conductor of the Prattville High School Wind Symphony, conductor of the Jazz Band and (assisting) with the Prattville High School Symphonic and Concert Bands,” according to a biography on the Prattville bands Web site.
“In his first year as director of bands, Mr. Bowman led the ‘Pride of Prattville’ Marching Band to superior ratings at the Phenix City Invitational and the Lake Martin Invitational. He also led the Prattville High School Wind Symphony to its first superior rating at state contest for the first time in 24 years.”
Under Bowman’s direction, the Prattville band grew from 145 members to about 280 members, he said.
Prior to Prattville, Bowman served as the Tallassee High School band director in Tallassee, Ala., and the band director of Beauregard High School in Opelika, Ala. LHS will be his fourth band assignment in the past nine years. Bowman earned both a bachelor of music education and a master of music education from Auburn University. He has also performed as a percussionist for various orchestras and has toured throughout the U.S. and in Europe.
With a roster of approximately 380 students and an expectation to compete and win, Bowman said he is not intimidated by the Bridgemen tradition but excited by it. He plans to maintain the band’s excellence and build on it.
“I believe the band is not something every kid can excel at, but the band can be a home for every kid willing to work hard and participate,” Bowman said.
He discovered the Georgia Bridgemen as a judge in the Lowndes High School invitational band competition. Impressed with the Bridgemen as well as its parent and community support, Bowman said he told his wife then he would apply for the Lowndes High band director position whenever it became available.
Now, that wish has come true.
He plans on moving to Valdosta-Lowndes County the last weekend in May. He is married to wife Beth Bowman, who will work at the Herndon Company. They have an 8-month-old son, Tanner.
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