He began his teaching career as an assistant at Yale University while completing his PhD. After a brief stint in publishing, he came to Mason in 1999. A specialist in 20th-century American music, Owens is the editor of the correspondence of Charles Ives. At Mason, he has been instrumental in creating many new courses and redesigning the music history curriculum for undergraduate and graduate music majors. He has taught on a wide variety of topics from world music, to English for music majors, to popular music, to graduate seminars on Mozart, Handel, Ives, Bach, Brahms and music in the 1920s. Owens is a devotee of progressive rock and an enthusiastic performer and occasional teacher of Balinese gamelan music.