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The English tenor, Ruairi Bowen, Ruairi began his musical education as a chorister at St Davids and St Paul’s Cathedrals. He spent a term singing with the Choir of St. Thomas Church 5th Avenue, New York before taking up a choral scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge, where he took part in master-classes Ann Murray and Justin Lavender. He continues his vocal studies with Paul Farrington and Caroline Dowdle.
Much in demand as an interpreter of Baroque repertoire in the UK and abroad, Ruairi Bowen recently made his debut at the Wigmore Hall and Bachfest Leipzig, performing J.S. Bach's Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) 1725 with Solomon's Knot. Other engagements have included Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) (arias) with both Adelaide Symphony Orchestra & Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with Stephen Layton, as well as the annual Good Friday performance with Polyphony/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenmentt at St John's Smith Square. In 2018 he took part in a Bach Cantata Ring with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, performing Cantatas BWV 61, BWV 78 & BWV 110 at The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Wiener Musikverein, the Barbican Centre in London and the Chapelle Royale in Versailles. Recent engagements include also: Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine at the Three Choirs Festival, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with Esterházy Chamber Choir & London Mozart Players, J.S. Bach's Messe in h-moll (BWV 232) with both English Touring Opera and Vasari Singers/Brandenburg Sinfonia, W.A. Mozart's Requiem & J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 198 with Oxford Bach Choir & Instruments of Time & Truth, Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas, George Frideric Handel's Messiah at Händel-Festspiele Halle and the Cathedral of All Saints, Albany NY. Future engagements include J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) with Ben Nicholas/Florilegium at both St John’s Smith Square/Passiontide at Merton, and J.S. Bach's Messe in h-Moll (BWV 232) with Stephen Layton and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Equally at home with larger-scale symphonic works, Ruairi Bowen sang in the world premiere & recording of Stanford's Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and Adrian Partington. Other engagements have included Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah in Worcester Cathedral, L.v. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Ben Palmer/Covent Garden Sinfonia and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Cotswold Romance with the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, and he will sing Verdi’s Messa da Requiem and Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi for the first time this Spring. On the operatic stage, he debuted Prologue/Quint in Benjamin Britten's Turn of the Screw at Barnes Music Festival and took on multiple roles in Purcell's The Indian Queen with Le Concert d'Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm at l'Opera de Lille in the autumn.
In recital Ruairi Bowen has performed Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation and Tippett’s Boyhood’s End with Anna Tilbrook for Finzi Friends, and a programme of Monteverdi court songs at Raynham Hall, Suffolk directed by Michael Chance. He sings regularly at Westminster Cathedral Choir and maintains a busy concert and recording schedule with the Monteverdi Choir (Director: John Eliot Gardiner), Gabrieli Consort (Director: Paul McCreesh), Alamire and the Eric Whitacre Singers.
In his spare time, Ruairi Bowen volunteers for the Refugee Council as a cricket coach and is a keen photographer and artist. He also sits on the committee of ‘Faire is the XI’, a cricket team comprising former choristers which plays in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. |
