Tenor and regular soloist with the Scottish National Orchestra
Born: August 3, 1932;
Died: September 1, 2018
KENNETH Bowen, who has died aged 86, was a well-known tenor principally recognised for his outstanding concert performances especially in oratorio, notably Handel’s Messiah and in the demanding title role of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. He was a stalwart of Welsh music and performed at such prestigious events as at the investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1969 and at the opening of St David’s Hall in Cardiff in 1982. From 1967 he was a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Early in his career Bowen was a regular visitor to Scotland and was an early supporter of the Ledlanet Lights Festival near Stirling where, in 1966, he sang the prologue in Britten’s Turn of the Screw.
He became a regular soloist with the Scottish National Orchestra after his first appearance in 1965 in Glasgow singing in the Messiah. He returned in 1970 for performances in Glasgow and Edinburgh of Hugh Wood’s Scenes from Comus and for Bruckner’s Te Deum in 1975. His final appearance with the SNO was for a fondly remembered concert that included Britten’s Serenade for Tenor and Horn in 1978.
Other appearances in Scotland included a tour by the English Opera Group in 1972 as Oswald in Purcell’s King Arthur and with Saddler’s Wells Opera in John Copley’s charming production of Mozart’s Il Seraglio. After a concert of The Dream of Gerontius under Christopher Seaman in Glasgow in 1973 Bowen tackled the challenging title role in The Damnation of Faust with the Edinburgh Choral Union in 1984.
Kenneth John Bowen was born at Llanelli. His father was a GWR parcels clerk and his mother a nurse. He showed a keen interest in singing with local choirs and choral societies and attended Llanelli Grammar School, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and then won a choral scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, where he sang with the famous chapel choir. He also gained a teaching diploma and in 1957 did his national service in the RAF.
HE sang often with the Three Choirs festival, the Aldeburgh festival and built up a wide repertoire that comfortably suited his voice. He was a regular at the Proms at the Albert Hall and in 1966 he sang Gerontius at a Prom in a memorable concert conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
Bowen was a strong supporter of contemporary Welsh music and sang in world premieres by leading Welsh composers, including William Mathias and Alan Hoddinott. He was a lover of traditional Welsh songs and recorded many rarer numbers - often singing them as encores at recitals.
He retired from singing in 1988 to concentrate on teaching at the Royal Academy of Music where he had become a professor of singing in 1967. He delighted in teaching his Welsh students (including Aled Jones and the bass-baritone Neal Davies) in Welsh. He is remembered at the RCM as a most diligent voice coach who was enthusiastic about other people’s interests and success.
In 1959 Bowen married Angela Evenden, who he met while at Cambridge. They divorced in 2008 and he is survived by their sons Geraint, who is director of music at Hereford Cathedral, and Meurig, head of artistic planning at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
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