McLean High School Graduate Greg Howard Turned Love Of Music Into A Fulfilling Life

MCLEAN, VA — Greg Howard demonstrated a strong interest and talent in music at a young age, playing the organ, clarinet and saxophone while in elementary school and then at McLean High School, where he served as the drum major of the school’s acclaimed marching band.

Inspired by his father’s love of music, Howard chose to follow his passion for making his own music and embarked on a career as a musician after graduating from the University of Virginia.

Over the span of his career, he performed more than 2,000 live performances, including at the Lincoln Center Festival’s Electronic Evolution Series in 2000 and at The Montreal Jazz Festival as a solo Chapman Stick artist in 2003. He also toured with the Dave Matthews Band in the 1990s.

On April 22, Howard, 58, died at his home in Charlottesville after a fight against pancreatic cancer, with his wife Joyce holding his hand.

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Howard became one of the foremost performers and teachers of the Chapman Stick. He discovered the Chapman Stick after attending a King Crimson concert in 1985 and seeing acclaimed musician Tony Levin playing the instrument.

Howard later became a member of the performance faculty at UVA, where he worked with Emmett Chapman, the inventor of the Chapman Stick, to donate one of the instruments to the university and created a teaching studio for the Chapman Stick.

He described himself at the time as “a frustrated keyboard player” and immediately recognized the Chapman Stick as the instrument that would allow him to fully express his music in the way he experienced it.

“Greg possessed an enormous amount hope and optimism for a better world and believed his music and love would contribute towards building a kinder society. He woke up each day with joy in his heart. He started each morning with coffee in his hand, entered his studio, and played beautiful music,” Howard’s wife Joyce wrote in an obituary.

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1964, Howard grew up in McLean. At McLean High School, Howard performed on stage with the school's theater group, starring in “The Girlfriend” and “Twelfth Night.” He also formed several musical collaborations while in high school, most notably the “Continental Drift,” before graduating in 1982.

After graduating from college, Howard spent time in Los Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico, but eventually made Charlottesville his home. Howard often said his music was a product of the Charlottesville music scene, which included a strong jazz and improvisational movement led by musicians like John D’earth and guitarist Tim Reynolds.

Howard contributed to the formative period of the Dave Matthews Band. He collaborated with them on stage and in the studio, and performed on the platinum CD "Before These Crowded Streets," the Dave Matthews Band's third studio album.

Under his own Espresso record label, Howard released 14 titles. In 2014 Greg released AZUL, a live studio improvisation with D'earth and drummer Brian Caputo.

In 1999, he formed the “Greg Howard Band” working with musicians from Holland: Jan Wolfkamp, Jan van Olffen and Hubert Heeringa. The band's album "Lift" was recorded in Holland and released early in 2000. Howard completed remastering "Lift" a few weeks before he died in April.

As a soloist, Howard released three CDs, including Stick Figures (1993, remastered 2003), a defining work of solo Stick composition and performance, and two live improvisational CDs, Water on the Moon (1998) and Ether Ore (2005).

According to his wife, Howard was exceptionally generous. He cared deeply about the environment and his community. Within the Charlottesville community, he volunteered for Literacy Volunteers and the Charlottesville Free Clinic.

Howard is survived by his wife, Joyce, daughters, Sharon and Merri, brother Jeff and his wife Cheryl, sister Karen Sasaki and her husband Rick, sister Laurie Felton and her husband Tom, nieces Erin and Casey Howard, nephews Max and Jack Sasaki, aunt Sara “Sally” Mastreani.

He was predeceased by his parents Everette and Beverly Howard, and his friend and mentor, Emmett Chapman, who died in 2021.

A service for Howard will be held on Saturday, July 22 at 2 p.m. at the Teague Funeral Home in Charlottesville, followed by a celebration of his life at his home.