Fox Chapel area performer earns full-ride master's scholarship to Leeds University in England

Well-known Fox Chapel area director and musical talent Jenna Bowman is setting off for an adventure across the pond.

With a dash of déjà vu, she’ll be living in an old steel town next to a river.

“This time it’s in England,” said Bowman, an O’Hara native and familiar face through her long-time involvement in community theater and various women’s choirs.

Bowman, a 2011 graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School, recently learned she earned a full-ride scholarship to The University of Leeds to study in the Master of Arts program for Music and Wellbeing.

“I was at work when I found out, and I almost fell off of my chair,” Bowman said about the Tetley and Lupton Scholarship. “I called and told every family member who would pick up the phone.”

The scholarship for international students is valued at $30,000.

A degree in music neuroscience and psychology will assist Bowman in her longer-term goal, which is to move back to Pittsburgh next year and with her musician husband open a performing arts center to serve the Fox Chapel area.

“I want to give Pittsburgh the musical and performing arts base that it deserves, especially the kids,” said Bowman, 29.

For years, she has worked to instill a passion for arts through her various roles in the community.

A graduate of Duquesne University, Bowman is the Artistic and Education Director of Riverfront Theater Company (RTC) in Aspinwall, the Music Director and Founder of Giovani Voci youth chorus for girls, and the Director and Choreographer of The Fox Chapel Follies musical fundraiser.

“It’s kind of impossible not to be involved around here,” she said. “The minute you graduate from Fox Chapel Area, all these opportunities present themselves.”

In 2016, Bowman joined Belle Voci intergenerational women’s choir as a singer, but it didn’t take long before she paved a path for the area’s youngest performers with the creation of Giovani Voci. The choral group for girls ages 6 to 14 performs at local attractions, including Pittsburgh’s annual Light Up Night celebration.

“Jenna is totally responsible for creating that program,” said Craig G. Cannon, Belle Voci artistic director.

“In addition to her musical gifts, she brings an exceptional ability to establish positive relationships with each young singer. She is an outstanding young adult role model for all of the girls.”

Many people know Bowman from her longtime stint with the Riverfront Theater Company, which began in 2017 and has blossomed so that she has a hand in helping guide young performers to fulfill their theatrical dreams.

“I’m going to miss everything about RTC, but what I’ll miss the most is the young artist show that we do over the summer with high school kids,” she said.

A singer since elementary school, the hobby sustained Bowman throughout high school and now into her adult life.

In her day job, Bowman works as an elementary teacher at the PA Distance Learning Charter School in Sewickley.

Throughout the covid pandemic, she began researching possible master’s programs and fell in love with Leeds’ research-based offering that combines neuroscience and psychology.

That her husband spent a year of his childhood in England helped cement the decision, Bowman said.

“I wanted to get up and go somewhere for a while before we settle back here,” she said. “This will give me the science background to bring something back and make the community better.”

A current resident of Pittsburgh’s Friendship neighborhood, Bowman said she is eager to get her year abroad underway. Having never traveled to England, she is thrilled learn and tour and soak in the culture.

“I find that the busier I am, the better,” she said.

“Without all these extra-curriculars, there’s no way I would have considered going to grad school for something like this,” Bowman said.

“I never would’ve thought to step outside of my Pittsburgh box but working with so many young kids, and watching them change and grow and learn, it made me feel like there’s something else out there for me to learn.”