Biography
He sang in a choir and learnt the piano accordion and organ as a child. When the church where he practised refused to let him carry on practising, he says: "I went and had a key cut to the church and I got in anyway." At St. Mary's Church, Twickenham, where he was organist, he managed to confuse the congregation in a way similar to that of Bach by playing Malcolm Williamson's Vision of Christ-Phœnix to conclude a confirmation: "the outcry there was at the AGM and in the parish magazine!" He attended Cecil Jones High School in Southend, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1979 to 1982 with organists Christopher Bowers-Broadbent and Douglas Hawkridge, harpsichordist Virginia Black, and Paul Steinitz. After graduation, he studied for two years with David Sanger after winning a Countess of Munster scholarship. When given a list of music to prepare at his first meeting with Sanger, he didn't realise that it was a term's work and had learnt it all by the next week.
Aside from playing the organ, he reads modern literature, especially James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and the Powys family. He is a lover of real ale and malt whisky, and lists his favourite recreation as "sleeping". He also enjoys the odd pinch of snuff.
Read more about this topic: Kevin Bowyer
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