Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent is one of Europe's leading organists in the field of avant-garde music.
As a boy he took part in the competitive auditions to become a chorister at King's College, Cambridge. In return for performing daily, at services in the College Chapel, during the course of which they learn a wide variety of choral repertoire, the choristers also received a thorough musical and general education at King's College School. Bowers-Broadbent studied organ, and when he graduated went on to the Royal Academy of Music in London.
During his studies he became committed to contemporary music. He is particularly close to the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. This attraction began when a BBC early music producer introduced him to Part's music. Bowers-Broadbent was particularly impressed by the music's "power over time and space" as well as the humanity that is evident in the music.
As a result of his commitment to contemporary music, Bowers-Broadbent has commissioned new works by composers such as Pärt, Philip Glass, Gavin Bryars, Henryk Gorecki, Stephen Montague, Robert Simpson, and Priaulx Rainer. Bowers-Broadbent records on the Harmonia Mundi and ECM Records labels, on which he has released some of this repertoire, other works by Pärt, and music of Satie, Milhaud, Messiaen, Handel, and Maxwell Davies.
Since 1976 Bowers-Broadbent has been professor of organ at the Royal Academy of Music.
In 1996 he suggested that Pärt revise his Berline4 Mass, written just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and celebrating the new freedom gained by Eastern Europeans. ECM released the revised version, with Bowers-Broadbent, Paul Hillier, and the Theatre of Voices, in March, 2000.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo
Discography
10 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Glass: Another Look at Harmony, Part IV
Choir of the 21st Century, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, Howard Williams
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by SOMM Recordings on Jan 14, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Méditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on May 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pärt: Trivium
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on Jan 1, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
First Drop
Ars Nova Copenhagen, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, Paul Hillier, Mathias Friis-Hansen, David Hildebrandt
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on May 19, 2017
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Górecki, Satie, Milhaud: O Domina Nostra
Sarah Leonard, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on Jan 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ikons: Choral Music of John Tavener
Classical - Released by Signum-Cala on Apr 26, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Celestial Dialogues / Hashkivenu / Shtetl Songs
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Milken Family Foundation on Apr 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs of the Soul / Shir L erev Shabbat / The Final Ingredient
Symphonic Music - Released by Milken Family Foundation on Jul 20, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Priory LP Archive Series, Vol. 5: Music on the Organ of Truro Cathedral
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, John Winter
Classical - Released by Priory Records on Jun 23, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Priory LP Archive Series, Vol. 4
Andrew Millington, Philip Moore, Michael Overbury, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent
Classical - Released by Priory Records on Jan 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo