Chair, Department of Music and Theater
lcowan@westliberty.edu
304.336.8293

Dr. Linda Cowan-Youssef holds the Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Indiana State University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

She has had many opportunities to perform in the genres of opera, musical theater, theater, oratorio, and the concert hall. She has concertized extensively in NJ, IN, PA and WV.  Cowan created Hilltop Opera at West Liberty University, where she has taught for 19 years, and directed many operatic and theatrical performances.

At West Liberty, Dr. Cowan is Chair of the Music and Theatre Department, and teaches private and class voice, diction, opera workshop, musical theater workshop, and vocal literature and pedagogy classes.  Dr. Cowan previously taught at the West Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts, and has been a frequent guest artist-teacher.  She served the National Association of Teachers of Singing as the Governor for West Virginia and as former President of the NATS Tri-States chapter.  She currently performs with Voces Solis, a nonprofit chorus in Pittsburgh, and is in demand as a guest clinician for master classes and for All-State and All-State Chamber Choir auditions, Solo and Ensemble Festivals, etc.

Her passions include her outreach to elementary and middle-school students with her “Opera Improv” workshops, serving on the National Board of Alpha Chi, and being a member of Chapter AB-Weirton. If you catch her in a spare moment, you will find her obsessively watching British television.

NOTE: Bio updated January 2022