Edward Cowie

Edward Cowie is a contemporary British writer, artist, and composer of orchestral, vocal, and chamber music. His expansive worklist contains over 130 pieces inspired by landscapes, bird calls, and the works of other artists. He was born in Birmingham in 1943 and he began studying the violin and piano as a child. He lived with his family in the quiet rural communities of Suffolk and the Cotswolds, where his exposure to nature proved a lasting influence. He began composing when he was 13, and later studied composition with Fricker at the University of London, while working on his bachelors’ degree in physics. After graduating in 1964, he became a student of Alexander Goehr, and he studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, in London. He was awarded a Chopin fellowship in 1971 which allowed him to travel to Warsaw to study composition with Witold Lutoslawski. Two years later, Cowie became a lecturer and composer-in-residence at the University of Lancaster, and it was also around this time when he composed Gesangbuch, Piano Concerto, and his first two string quartets. He was appointed composer-in residence for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 1983 to 1986, and he also became the chair of creative arts at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales. During his time in Australia, he was in high demand as a conductor, and he composed several important works, including the Choral Symphony, Atlas, and Cello Concerto. From 1989 to 1994 he was director and research professor of the Australian Arts Fusion Centre at the James Cook University in Queensland, where he explored the interdisciplinary relationships between visual arts, music, and science. He also draws inspiration from the interpretations of other artists, like Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of the movement of water, which inspired the Concerto for Orchestra. Cowie returned to England in 1995, and in 1996 he became the director of research at the Darlington College of Arts in Devon. His interest in birds led to an appointment as the first artist in residence with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds from 2002 to 2006, and he simultaneously became the first composer in association with the BBC Singers. In 2003, Cowie published Birds Talk, which was the first of a series of children’s books about nature. Other bird- and nature-inspired works from this period include An Exultation of Larks, Gaia, and String Quartet No. 5: Birdsong Bagatelle. In 2008, he composed 24 Preludes for Solo Piano, which was commissioned and recorded by Philip Mead, and re-released in 2022. In the 2010s, Cowie’s productivity as a composer increased dramatically, and he received commissions from the Miyabi Duo, the Coull Quartet, Brian Foster, and several others. Since 2020, he has continued to compose at a very fast pace, and his music was featured on Edward Cowie: Three Quartets & A Solo, Bird Portraits, and the companion album Where Song Was Born.
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