Harry Bowden (piano)

Programme

Brahms – 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118
Messiaen – Le Courlis Cendré from Catalogue d’Oiseaux
Ravel – Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Artist Bio

Harry Bowden is a 19-year-old pianist from Bolton. He has performed in multiple venues across London and the North of England, including recitals at the RNCM, Centre and Forsyth’s in Manchester. Harry began piano lessons aged 6, joining the Junior RNCM in 2022 studying piano with his long-time mentor Les Chisnall alongside organ with Simon Mercer and conducting with Juan Ortuño. During this time he has also received guidance from Peter Donohoe and Marta. After winning the 2024 JRNCM Concerto Competition he performed Liszt’s First Concerto with the JRNCM Sinfonia under Eduardo Portal. Other competition successes have included 1st prizes in the 2020 Chopin Festival in Mazovia and 2021 Cittá di Arona Competition, and 3rd prize in the 2023 Future Stars International Piano Competition.

With a particular interest in 20th and 21st century music, Harry has garnered praise for his commitment to neglected music, especially the music of Kaikhosru Sorabji, of which his playing has been described as ‘wholly idiomatic and profoundly sensitive’. Planned for the coming year are a collaboration with renowned recorder player John Turner including premieres by Robert Saxton and others, and a rare performance of excerpts from Sorabji’s Opus Clavicembalisticum. A past performance of John Ogdon’s Five Preludes received praise from the composer’s widow as having ‘real understanding and tremendous imagination’.

Harry is currently an undergraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music as a Drapers’ Company Scholar, studying with Emeritus Head of Keyboard Christopher Elton.

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