[1] Cowell joined the Toronto Symphony Band in 1941 at the age of 15 as trumpet soloist.
[1] He served during World War II as soloist with the Royal Canadian Navy band in Victoria, BC, and played first trumpet from 1943 to 1945 with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.
He later studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCMT) with Oskar Morawetz and John Weinzweig.
[2] His song 'Walk Hand in Hand' (1956) has been recorded over 90 times [2] making Cowell one of Canada's most successful songwriters[1] He composed the trumpet instrumental Our Winter Love[3] that Bill Pursell later arranged for piano in a No.
[5] They met six years earlier when he began playing trumpet for the dance band in which Joan was the vocalist.