© Pablo Strong
Gwilym Bowen
Tenor
Acclaimed for the clarity and beauty of his singing and dynamic stage presence, British tenor Gwilym Bowen performs internationally with orchestras and ensembles of the highest calibre. Gwilym was made an Associate Artist of Ian Page’s Classical Opera Company / The Mozartists ahead of their Mozart 250 exploration of 1769, and he collaborates regularly with Richard Egarr and Stephen Layton with the Academy of Ancient Music and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Gwilym’s repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary, with a specialist interest in Bach, Monteverdi and Handel.
News
ST John Passion on Palm Sunday
Gwilym Bowen sings the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion with the Britten Sinfonia.
On 28th March, Palm Sunday, Gwilym Bowen will sing the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion in a free pre-recorded broadcast from Saffron Walden's Saffron Hall. Daniel Hyde, Director of Music at Kings College, Cambridge, conducts the Britten Sinfonia and a hand-picked choir of soloists, including Will Gaunt as Christus. This concert will be available to view from 7pm on Palm Sunday on Britten Sinfonia's website, Saffron Hall's website and on Youtube and will be available on demand for one month.
Click here for more information about this free-streamed concert.
Later this season, Gwilym will be appearing as Snout in The Grange Festival's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Media
Repertoire Includes
Concert
BACH
Cantatas 4, 8, 11, 42, 55, 61, 75, 78, 100, 103, 106, 109, 116, 144,
150, 157, 171, 198, 201, 207, 213, 214
Johannes-passion (Evangelist & arias)
Magnificat in D/Eb
Mass in A
Mass in B Minor
Matthäus-passion (Evangelist & arias)
Weihnachts-oratorium (Evangelist & arias)
C.P.E. BACH
Johannespassion
Magnificat
BEETHOVEN
Mass in C
BRITTEN
Les Illuminations
Serenade
St Nicolas
War Requiem
BRUCKNER
Mass in D
CHARPENTIER
Messe de minuit pour Nöel
CHILCOTT
Requiem
DUSSEK
Mass in G
DVOŘÁK
Stabat Mater
HANDEL
Alexander’s Feast
Brockes-Passion
„Chandos“ Anthems
Dixit Dominus
Israel in Egypt
Jephtha
L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato
Messiah
Solomon
HAYDN
Creation
Missa in Angustiis “Nelson Mass”
Missa in Tempora Belli
The Seasons
Theresienmesse
LEIGHTON
Crucifixus pro nobis
MACMILLAN
All the hills and vales along
MAHLER
Das Lied von der Erde (Schoenberg/Riehn chamber arrangement)
MENDELSSOHN
Elijah
St Paul
Symphony No 2 “Lobgesang”
MONTEVERDI
Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610
MOZART
Krönungsmesse
Mass in C minor
Requiem
ORFF
Carmina Burana
SCHUBERT
Mass in G
SCHÜTZ
Weihnachtshistorie
WOLF
Passionsoratorium
Opera
BERKELEY
A Dinner Engagement (H.R.H. Prince Philippe)
BRITTEN
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander)
de’ CAVALIERI
Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo (Intelletto)
DEBUSSY
Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas)
DOVE
Siren Song (Davey)
GLUCK
Bauci e Filemone (Giove)
HANDEL
Acis & Galatea (Damon)
Ariodante (Lurcanio)
HASSE
Piramo e Tisbe (Il padre)
BARNABY MARTIN
Far from the Madding Crowd (Sgt Troy)
MONTEVERDI
L’incoronazione di Poppea (Lucano, Valletto, Arnalta, Liberto, highest Famigliare, primo soldato, secondo soldato)
Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria (Eurimaco, Giove, Telemacho)
PUCCINI
Gianni Schicchi (Gherardo)
PURCELL
Fairy Queen (Attendant, Phoebus, Summer &c.)
Dido & Aeneas (Sailor)
RAMEAU
Zaïs (Un sylph)
MATT ROGERS
And London Burned (Smith)
JOEL RUST
Nauset
STRAVINSKY
The Rake’s Progress (Tom Rakewell, Sellem)
Various, arr. FIŠERA/KAMPS
Be With Me Now
KATE WHITLEY
0520
Bonesong
Unknown Position
Press
“We had in tenor Gwilym Bowen a seraphic herald of good tidings: looking with golden curls like a Botticelli angel, his exquisitely gentle ‘Comfort ye’ hung in the air like a beam of light...his melting tone provided a fine contrast with the robust contributions of seasoned bass Neal Davies”
Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine
“something of a rising glory”
Geoff Brown, The Times
Handel BROCKES PASSION / Academy of Ancient Music
“Peter’s agony is particularly well caught by the tenor Gwilym Bowen”
Geoff Brown, The Times
“The young tenor Gwilym Bowen emerges as one of the most exciting voices on the set, raging furiously in the bravura ‘Gift und Glut’"
Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical
“an intensely dramatic Peter, whether in his splenetic outburst at Judas’s betrayal (‘Gift und Glut’) or his own self-lacerating remorse (‘Heul, du Schaum!’)””
Richard Wigmore, Gramophone
Monteverdi L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA / Angers-Nantes Opera
"We note the piquant Valetto of Gwilym Bowen, with never-failing articulation: it's a true pleasure to "taste the text" in these scenes, Bowen revealing the exasperation as much as the sensual outbursts of which the character is capable"
Alexandre Pham, classiquenews
Berkeley A DINNER ENGAGEMENT / Royal Academy of Music Opera
"As Sellem, Gwilym Bowen offered a very different sense of humour, utterly captivating, never outstaying its welcome, and likewise never at the expense of excellent musical values, line and attention to the words exemplary"
Mark Berry, Seen & Heard International
James Macmillan ALL THE HILLS AND VALES ALONG / Edinburgh International Festival
“Bowen articulated Sorley’s brutally honest account of war with heart-felt passion”
Susan Nickalls, The Scotsman
Bach WEIHNACHTS-ORATORIUM / Australian Chamber Orchestra
"All of this glory was outshone by young tenor Gwilym Bowen...Vibrant, expressive, agile and dramatic, this crowned an astounding array of vocal quality throughout the performance"
David Barmby, Limelight
Bach MASS IN B MINOR / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Cond. Layton)
“I relished Bowen’s nicely plangent tone which also has underlying strength. This is very accomplished singing"
John Quinn, Music Web International
Bach MATTHÄUS-PASSION / Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
"The Evangelist, Gwilym Bowen, was a consistently intense presence, plangent and vocally at ease even in the highest-lying sections of his part. This was the most immersed I’ve seen an Evangelist in the drama, at turns grief-stricken and desperate...yet all felt in service of the music, never detracting from it"
Simon Holden, Bachtrack
"If Bach's St Matthew Passion were his opera manqué, then Gwilym Bowen's Evangelist achieved divo status. He delivered narrative as living drama, never missing a detail or inflection"
William Dart, New Zealand Herald
Handel MESSIAH / Seattle Symphony Orchestra
"Bowen made the kind of impact not heard here since the lone Messiah appearance in Seattle of the great English tenor Philip Langridge, back in the late 1970s. Lyrical and agile, with considerable expressive depth, Bowen delivered every phrase as if it had just occurred to him, with unfailingly expressive spontaneity. His Thy rebuke was positively heart-rending"
Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times
