Robert Bowman, DMA

Location:

Chico, California
United States 95926

Additional Info:

Biography
Dr. ROBERT BOWMAN, keyboard artist, has performed extensively on the West, Midwest and East Coasts of the United States in solo and chamber ensemble recitals, numerous appearances with orchestra, and on radio-tv since 1960. He has also performed solo and ensemble recitals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Mexico.

He served as coordinator of the keyboard program at California State University, Chico from 1971-2003, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 2008. Dr. Bowman previously was a member of the of keyboard faculties of Eastern Illinois University (1969-71) and University of Southern California (1965-69). Since retirement, he continues to maintain a private music studio, perform as a soloist and collaborative keyboardist, as well as present workshops, master classes, and lectures/lecture-recitals on a wide variety of subjects. In 2009, he joined the faculty of the Sacramento School of Music.

His principal teachers were Adolph Baller of the Alma Trio, Gertrude Weeth, John Crown, Alice Ehlers, and Martin Canin. Since 1991, he began an intensive study of the Dorothy Taubman Approach, studying with faculty members of the Dorothy Taubman and Edna Golandsky Institutes including Dorothy Taubman, Edna Golandsky, Nina Scolnik, Robert Durso, John Bloomfield, and Marc Steiner. He has performed in Master Classes with Rosina Lhevinne, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Dorothy Taubman, and Edna Golandsky. Dr. Bowman studied conducting with Dr. Walter DuCloux, Sandor Salgo, and Hans Beer as well as composition with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, and Leland Smith.   He obtained a B.A. in Music (1962) and an M.A. degree in Orchestral Conducting (1965) from Stanford University as well as a D.M.A. degree from University of Southern California in Piano with Harpsichord Performance (1969) after serving two years as a Special Services Officer in the U.S. Army in New York.

He has appeared as featured soloist with the New Rochelle Symphony in New York, the University of Southern California Congress of Strings, the Camellia Symphony of Sacramento, the CSU, Chico Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Paradise and Shasta Symphony Orchestras, and the Chico Symphony Orchestra under the batons of Sidney Powers, Dr. Walter DuCloux, Dr. Daniel Kingman, William Whitson. Dr. Walter Dahlin, Daniel Heistand, Dr. Alfred Loeffler, Dr. Richard Fiske, and Dr. David Colson.

Some of the concertos he has performed with orchestra include Bach’s Concerto in D minor; Concertos for 2, 3, and 4 harpsichords, “Triple” Concerto in a minor, and Brandenburg Concerto #5; Brahms’ Concerto #2; Franck’s Symphonic Variations; Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue; Haydn’s Concerto in D major; Mozart’s Concertos in G major, K. 453; Eb, K. 271, and d minor, K. 466; Rachmaninoff’s Concerto #3; and Schumann’s Concerto in a minor and Concert Allegro with Introduction.

On March 6, 1997 Critic Ernst Schoen-Rene of the Chico News and Review wrote:
“I cannot get the opening theme out of my head–nor,
I suppose, can anyone who heard Pianist Robert Bowman
and the Chico Symphony’s magnificent performance of
Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto this past weekend…
Bowman, himself of Russian background and deeply
engaged in the work, began the statement a bit tentatively
Saturday night more firmly Sunday afternoon, but it mattered
little, so deeply felt was the playing and so excellent the
orchestral accompaniment. Indeed, five minutes into
the Third Concerto (longer and more challenging than
any other Rachmaninoff concerto), the sizable Laxson Hall
audience was totally captured…Absolutely thrilling!”

On March 5, 1998, critic Charlotte Russell of the Paradise Post wrote:
  ”Piano soloist, Robert Bowman gave a bravura
performance of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” …
His zest and enthusiasm for the Gershwin perennial favorite
was evidenced by his performance…Dr. Bowman gave full
play to the lyricism of Gershwin’s themes, providing marked
contrast to the strident “jazz” mode…at the conclusion of
Dr. Bowman’s performance, the audience sprang to its feet
and shook the walls and rafters with their applause. It was a
spontaneous gesture that must have gladdened the hearts
of all the musicians who participated in making this
an event to remember.”

His solo repertoire ranges from works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Gottschalk, Debussy, Ravel, Tomas Svoboda and many others. In addition to the piano, Dr. Bowman has performed extensively on harpsichord as well as fortepiano and organ. In 1995, he performed Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on the centennial organ at California State University, Chico. He has performed harpsichord recitals including works by Bach, Rameau, Handel, Scarlatti, and Couperin. In March of 2007, he performed a program of 14 Scarlatti Sonatas on harpsichord, modern piano, organ, and fortepiano, and directed a performance of Bach’s Musical Offering. The lecture-recital“From Gottschalk to Gershwin” featured American composers including MacDowell, Amy Beach, Griffes, Arthur Foote, and African-American Composers, R.N Dett, Scott Joplin, and William Grant Still was received with enthusiasm in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1998.

His collaborative repertoire includes sonatas and trios of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, Prokofiev, Weber, and Poulenc as well as quartets by Mozart, Schumann and Brahms, and quintets by Dvorak, Schumann and Brahms. His has performed with violinists John Creighton Murray, Mischa Lefkowitz, David Mallory, and Dan Flanagan; cellists Burke Schuchman, Michal Palzewitz; flutists Dr. Heidi Pintner and Yael Ronan; clarinetist Dr. Russell Burnham; the Da Vinci Quartet, the Sun Quartet, and the Vivace Chamber Players, and keyboardists Istvan Nadas, Leslie Lundberg, Joyce Groshong.

In July, 1989 he was awarded third prize in the Artist’s Division of the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Competition in Orlando, Florida. As part of the Bowman-Lundberg Duo, he performed several times at the Winter Duo-Piano Festival and Competition in El Cajon, California where the duo received 2nd, 3rd place, and honorable mention prizes in 1996, 1995, and 1994 respectively.

  He has performed for state conventions of the Illinois State Music Teachers, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and the Northstate Convention of the American Guild of Organists including two performances of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord.  

During the Summers of 1987 and 1990, Dr. Bowman presented solo and piano ensemble concerts in Baden-Baden (at Brahmshaus) and in Munich. In 1990, he also performed concerts on organ and harpsichord in Austria. In 1998, he returned to Europe to present concerts of European and American keyboard music and workshops including a lecture-recital for the PIANO-PODIUM of Karlsruhe entitled “From Gottschalk to Gershwin, 90 years of American Piano Music”. In 2001, he also presented an introductory lecture on The Dorothy Taubman Approach, and in June, 2008, he performed on the 25th Jubilee Concerts.

In addition to solo work, Dr. Bowman has done extensive concertizing as a collaborative pianist. He has toured with violinists John Creighton Murray, Mischa Lefkowitz, David Mallory in the San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, and Oregon, and cellist Burke Schuchmann in the Bay Area, Chico, and Redding. He has also performed with violinists, Elizabeth Field, Bill Barbini, and Dan Flanagan and performed at the Anton Dvorak Museum in Prague with Czech-German violinist, Alfred Csammer. He has also performed with cellists, Ira Lehn, Ruth Saphir-Hardin, Michal Palzewicz, and Burke Schuchmann, and pianists Istvan Nadas, Joyce Groshong, Leslie Lundberg, Nancy Bricard, and Ted Price as well as his mother, Jane Bowman Jewett.

He has conducted and performed harpsichord in Bach’s MUSICAL OFFERING in Los Angeles and Northern California. In 1988, he performed the complete violin sonatas of Brahms with violinist Alfred Csammer of Karlsruhe, Germany. He performed Carl Reinecke’s SONATA”Ondine” with CSU, Chico colleague/flutest, Jan Roberts and Carl Maria von Weber’s DUO CONCERTANTE with colleague/clarinetist, Dr. Russell Burnham at the 1994 and 1996 CAPMT state conventions.

In 1996-7, he performed the Schumann and Brahms QUINTET’s with the Sun String Quartet of CSU, Sacramento as well as Brahms “Horn” TRIO with french hornist Pete Nowland of Sacramento in concerts in Berkeley (with violinist Rudy Cramer) and in Sacramento (with violinist Elizabeth Field). In October 1999, he performed the Dvorak PIANO QUINTET with the world famous DA VINCI QUARTET at CSU, Chico and Cabrillo College and also performed Brahms’ PIANO QUARTET in C minor, Op. 60 on the Faculty Chamber Music Recital as well as Prokofiev’s FLUTE SONATA with Dr. Heidi Pintner.  

He performed Bach’s ‘Goldberg’ Variations on the organ as part of the Early Music Concert Series at CSU, Chico on August 27, 2000 and was the featured soloist-guest conductor with the Paradise Symphony on October, 29th at 7 p.m. performing and conducting from the piano Haydn’s Concerto in D major and in December 2nd, 2001, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in d minor. He also performed the Schumann Piano Quintet, and Tomas Svoboda’s Sonatina for piano, flute, and clarinet on the January, 2001 Faculty Chamber Music Concert.

He has performed on the Incline Village Chamber Music Society Summer Concert Series with Dr. Russell Burnham and Dr. Heidi Pintner in August 2001 and as pianist in the Pintner-Bowman Duo during the summers of 2002 and 2003 and at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2004.

Dr. Bowman is also pianist with the Vivace Trio with David Mallory, violinist, and Dr. Russell Burnham, clarinetist. They performed 3 concerts in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in January of 2001 and 2003.

Dr. Bowman will present Workshops and Master Classes in March, 2004 at University of Hawaii in Hilo, Hawaii and give solo recitals in Redding, California and Boise, Idaho in April, 2004.

In the United States, Dr. Bowman has presented workshops and master classes on various subjects including Keyboard Works of J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, and Domenico Scarlatti, as well as 18th and 19th Century Performance Practice, Stress Reduction for Performers and Teachers, and Improvisation for Performers.

He is also a registered Associate Advanced Instructor/Practitioner of Ortho-Bionomytm , an effective form of non-force manipulation and self-healing, developed by English Osteopath, Dr. Arthur Lincoln Pauls, which he utilizes in conjunction with his training in the Taubman Approach, stress management techniques, and principles of the Alexander Method to assist musicians reducing tension, preventing injury, and helping the rehabilitation of musicians limited with physical and stress related tension and injury. He also gives ORTHO-BIONOMY workshops for performers focusing on ways to reduce tension and pain in the neck, back, and upper extremities, as well as technique clinics for keyboard players.  

He has lectured on Baroque Performance Practice at the state convention of the Music Teachers Assocciation of California as well as presenting lectures on piano pedagogy for various local branches of the MTAC and the Reno Music Teachers Association. He has adjudicated at Festivals, Examinations and Competitions held by CAPMT, the Southern California Jr. Bach Festival, MTAC, Reno MTA, the National Guild of Piano Teachers, and La Jolla Symphony, He is also a adjudicator for National Open Piano Competition in Oakland, California.
by WordPress | Design by Beysim Ali

Fees

$ 75.00 Dollars Per Hour
Fee Schedule as a collaborative keyboardist/coach:

$75/hour (Advanced Students and Professional Performers):
This fee is based on the rehearsal/coaching session, preparation time, and amount of repertoire. There will be an additional fee for repertoire requiring more preparation time. Repertoire must be submitted in a timely manner to ensure adequate time for preparation. Short notice requests may result in an additional fee.

$50/hour (Intermediate Performers). This fee is based on the rehearsal/coaching session with little or no outside preparation time required.

$25/half-hour (Elementary-lower intermediate performers).

Advanced Level/Profession Performance Recital Fees are negotiable and will vary depending on the length of the performance, the difficulty of the repertoire, travel time (if not local), pre-performance warm-up, etc.

For elementary-intermediate performances not requiring more than a half/hour of outside preparation, the normal fee schedule will apply.

Instruments

Piano, Organ, Harpsichord

Specialisms

Early Music, Improvisation, Instrumental Accompaniment, Vocal Accompaniment

Why not...

Register for free at PianoAccompanists.com.

Registration is completely free and allows you to create an informative, searchable accompanist profile.

It takes less than a minute to create your profile. Why not give it a try?