Kevin Bowyer (Organist)
"Kevin Bowyer, like the landscape gardener,
Capablility Brown, has an analytical mind which can assess a score's potential.
He also has a warm heart, which seeks every opportunity of humanising music
which might seem unduly cerebral." Classic CD
"Rarely does one find such a perfect match of player, music and
instrument as this turns out to be. Alain's post-Romantic expressionism seems to
find a ready soul-mate in Kevin Bowyer." Organists' Review
"I am astonished by your brilliant
performances." Fernando Germani
"Bowyer is at complete ease with the complexities of the music,
and the resulting performances can only be described as perfect." The
Organ.
"...a superb player, not only technically brilliant, but
profoundly musical..." Gramophone.
"...one of the most exciting organists now active... one of the
few musicians at work today who might be compared to John
Ogdon." Fanfare.
“...this extraordinary concert was a spectacular tour de force
of virtuoso and characterful organ playing by Kevin Bowyer, whose pyrotechnical
feats of digital magic could be observed, but not explained, in detail via the
fixed camera in the organ loft that projected the eye-boggling versatility of
his wrists, flying fingers, hands, dancing feet and lead weights on to a large
screen...” Glasgow Herald
“...one of the world’s hardiest and most formidable virtuosos…
probably... Britain’s most formidable organist.” MusicWeb
International
“unique” Gramophone
“...amazing intensity of interpretative vision and wonderful
use of organ colour...” Gramophone
Kevin Bowyer was born in Southend-on-Sea in January 1961 and studied with
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, David Sanger, Virginia Black and Paul Steinitz. In
his early career he won first prizes in five international organ competitions
and his 1987 world premiere of Kaikhosru Sorabji’s two hour solo Symphony for
Organ, considered “impossible” ever since its publication in 1925, helped to
cement his reputation as a player of contemporary music and music of extreme
technical complexity. In June 2010 he premiered Sorabji’s Second Symphony for
Organ (1929-32) in Glasgow and Amsterdam – at nearly 8 hours duration, the
longest notated organ work of all. He recently completed a critical edition of
Sorabi’s complete organ works, a thousand-page project that occupied him almost
full time for six years (2008-14).
Kevin Bowyer - an over the right shoulder view At home Kevin has played
solo and concerto concerts in most of the major venues and festivals. Tours
abroad have taken him throughout Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. He
has released a great number of solo CDs, many of which have won awards. These
include many landmark recordings of contemporary music as well as the complete
organ music of J S Bach (on 29 CDs) and music by Alkan, Brahms, Schumann,
Reubke, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Messiaen, Alain, etc. Jonathan Wearn, writing in
MusicWeb International, described him as “one of the world’s hardiest and most
formidable virtuosos…” and Gramophone magazine described him as “unique”. He
also enjoys playing light music and jazz.
Kevin is a popular teacher and has lectured and given masterclasses in many
countries. He is Organist to the University of Glasgow, where he plays for many
of the 150 annual weddings. Couples are encouraged to have “absolutely anything
they want” played on the organ. He has never turned down any request.
Kevin’s article, Twentieth Century European Organ Music – A Toast, cast as a
play set in a Cotswolds pub, in the Incorporated Association of Organists’
Millennium Book was described by one reviewer as “quite simply the best piece of
writing on organ music that I have ever seen.”
His other interests include reading widely, obscure cinema, real ale, malt
whiskies and looking at the sea. His favourite pastime is sleeping.
Kevin Bowyer website www.kevinbowyer.net
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