Dr. J.A. Kawarsky graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Iowa State University in May 1981, where he studied composition with Gay C. White and piano with William David. He then studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the summer of 1981. He received a Master of Music degree in composition from Northwestern University in 1982 and then returned to Israel to conduct the Opera Company of the Negev Region in Be'er Sheva and worked with a number of local choirs. In 1983, Dr. Kawarsky returned to Chicago to work on a Doctorate in composition at Northwestern where he studied composition with Alan Stout, arranging with John Paynter and conducting with Frederick Ockwell. Upon the completion of said degree in 1985, he taught at Fort Hays State University, the University of Wisconsin-Marathon, Moraine Valley Community College, (Palos Hills, IL) and, since 1989, at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ where he is Professor of Music Theory and Composition and Chair of the Musical Theater Program.