Edward Cowie

Edward Cowie (born Birmingham, England 1943) is an English composer, author and painter

Experience of nature in his early years has influenced much of his work, such as the 1975 BBC Proms commission "Leviathan". His studies with Alexander Goehr and later with Witold Lutoslawski in Poland helped Cowie to develop a highly personal style, lyrical, freely atonal and rhythmically complex. Some of his later works have experimented with a return to tonality, although the composer has since questioned this change of direction.

In 1983, Cowie was awarded the first Granada Composer Fellowship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He remained with the orchestra for three years and worked with them as both composer and conductor. Since that time, he has worked as a conductor with several major orchestras and ensembles in Britain and Australia.

Alongside his rise to prominence as a musician, Cowie has exhibited internationally as a painter, and his works are in public and private collections in more than 20 countries. He has also made several television films, including his acclaimed BBC2 film on Leonardo, of 1986. In 1988 and 1989, he wrote and presented two major radio series commissioned by ABCFM, Australia.

During the late 1990s, he also worked as an author of books on wildlife and the first in a major series, Birds Talk, was published in 2001.

He was appointed the first Composer in Association with the BBC Singers, 2002-2006 and also created the first Artist in Residence with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, also for the period 2002-06. In 1996 he was appointed Professor and Director of Research at Dartington College of Arts in Devon,

He is now exclusively published by United Music Publishers in London and also now lives and works mainly in South West France. He continues to divide his time between his home there and his musical and academic career in the UK.

Orchestral

tring Quartets

olo Works

External links

* [http://www.edward-cowie.com/ Composer's Website]
* [http://www.ump.co.uk/ United Music Publishers] |