Timothy Bowers

Biography

Timothy Bowers (born 1954) is a composer, performer and music lecturer.

Bowers was born in Surrey and began playing violin with the Croydon Youth Orchestra. He started composing aged 11, then trained at the Royal Academy of Music with Alan Bush. He also studied privately with David Blake, at the University of London, and at the University of York with David Kershaw. Since 1979 he has taught at the Academy.

He is best known for his guitar compositions (including the 2018 Guitar Concerto and many short pieces), and instrumental sonatas (including five for brass). But his list of more than 80 works also includes orchestral and chamber music, choral pieces and music for the theatre and documentary films. Among his eleven (to date) song cycles are the three books of Last Words, setting the final words of fourteen historical characters and two epitaphs by Byron. He has worked closely with the Finnish choir Campanella.

Bowers has written on Alan Bush and edited some of his late works. The book Composers on the 9 includes a substantial essay on Malcolm Arnold's symphonies, alongside brief contributions from other composers. Strings, Winds, Pipes, Pianos and Food is a survey of Arnold's many concertos.

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