© Kevin Corby Bowyer 2024
Kevin Bowyer is a well-known figure in the organ world. Born in Southend-on-Sea in 1961, he studied with Eric Welch, Douglas Hawkridge, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, David Sanger, Arthur Wills, Virginia Black, and Paul Steinitz. His triumphs in five international organ competitions (St. Albans, 1983; Dublin, Paisley, Odense, Calgary, all 1990) led to worldwide performances and a discography of well over a hundred solo CDs (those are what folk used to buy before “streaming” came along), encompassing the complete organ works of J S Bach, Brahms, and Alain, and running through Schumann, Reubke, Alkan, Hindemith, Pepping, Nielsen, Schoenberg, Langlais and Messiaen to a vast amount of contemporary stuff by Alan Gibbs, Malcolm Williamson, Janet Graham, James Iliff, Wilfrid Mellers, Brian Ferneyhough, Charles Camilleri, Gordon Sherwood, Ronald Law, Peter Maxwell Davies, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Philip Glass, Alistair Hinton, Kaikhosru Sorabji… the inventory is almost endless. He also dabbled in light music, recording a series of five discs entitled Organ Party! and another pair yclept Organ X-Plosion! The breadth and size of his repertoire has been described more than once as “unique”. Kevin hates long lists. He was a popular teacher, and from 1999 to 2008, served as senior lecturer in organ at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. He’s been organist to the University of Glasgow since 2005. In 2022, he was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists, the institution’s highest honour, and in 2023, the “Lifetime Award” of the German Record Critics the “Ehrenpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” who described him as The most exciting and stimulating organist of our time. He contributed two extensive chapters to the third volume of Jon Laukvik’s Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing: Modern and Contemporary Music (Carus 60.011): one on British music, the other on North American. Under the nom de plume Kevin Corby Bowyer , he has produced (so far) seven volumes of fiction. Click here for a link to his writing website …… These days, Kevin has largely withdrawn from concert playing but does occasionally emerge from hiding, particularly to play repertoire that tempts him. Ask if you’re interested. You’ll get a kind reply, at least…
Kevin Bowyer - organist
© Kevin Bowyer 2024
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“Change your name! Kevin Bowyer don’t sound like an organist - sounds like a b***** Boy Scout!” (Advice of record producer, 1988)