Kenneth Bowen (tenor)

Bowen was born in Llanelli in 1932. He studied at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and St John's College, Cambridge, where he was Choral Scholar under George Guest.[1][2] He married fellow Cambridge student, medic Angela Evenden, in 1959. The couple had two sons,[2]the organist and conductor Geraint Bowen and the arts administrator Meurig Bowen,[3] and separated in 1995.[4]

Following student performances in Cambridge the previous year, Bowen was an admired Tom Rakewell in the London premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at Sadler's Wells in 1957. National Service duties then intervened, before competition wins in Liverpool (The Queen's Prize) and Munich provided fresh impetus in the early 1960s.

Subsequently, Bowen sang all the major Mozart tenor roles for Welsh National Opera, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and performed Purcell, Britten, Henze and Tippett's King Priam (Hermes) at The Royal Opera.

It was on the concert platform that Bowen was most busy. A favourite with choral societies and orchestras around the UK, key works were Handel's Messiah (which he performed 17 times one December), the Bach Passions, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Verdi's Requiem and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, which he sang nearly 200 times over three decades, and several times with Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir Charles Groves. BBC Proms appearances included Gerontius with Sargent, the premiere of Hugh Wood's Scenes from Comus, Berlioz' Damnation of Faust with the CBSO and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with Boulez and the BBCSO.

He was a prolific broadcaster for the BBC, and his discography includes Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with Boult, Messiah with Stokowski, Tippett's King Priam, Britten's Death in Venice (Hotel Porter), Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and Jakobsleiter with Boulez and Mathias' This Worldes Joie with Willcocks. He championed the work of many Welsh composers in particular, notably William Mathias, Alun Hoddinott, Dilys Elwyn Edwards and Grace Williams.

In 1969, he sang at the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, and in 1982 he sang at the opening of St David's Hall in Cardiff.[2][5] In 1983, Bowen co-founded the London Welsh Chorale, where he served as conductor until 2008.[2] During his career, he sang at multiple National Eisteddfods, where he also greatly enjoyed adjudicating the vocal and choral competitions. He was a Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music from 1966 to 1999, and Head of Vocal Studies there in the late '80s/early '90s. [2][6]

Bowen died aged 86 on 1 September 2018 in Cheltenham, England.[1][2][5] His funeral was at St Davids Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, and he is buried nearby in Fishguard.