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 concerts, 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. He has performed such works as Brahms’ Concerto #2, Rachmaninoff’s Concerto #3, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Schumann’s Concerto in a minor, Mozart’s Concerto in d minor; Bach’s Concerto in D minor and Brandenburg Concerto #5.
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.”
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 the state conventions of the Illinois State Music Teachers and has performed Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations on harpsichord for the California Association of Professional Music Teachers and the North State Convention of the American Guild of Organists.
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 a concert of European and American keyboard music in Frankfurt as well as present 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—both for the Piano-Podium.
In addition to solo work, Dr. Bowman has done extensive concretizing 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 in Summer 2001 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, and Michal Palzewicz, as well as pianists Istvan Nadas, Joyce Groshong, Leslie Lundberg, Nancy Bricard, Ted Price and his mother, Jane Bowman Jewett.
In 1988, he performed the complete violin sonatas of Brahms with violinist Alfred Csammer of Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1996-7 performed the Schumann and Brahms Quintets with the Sun Quartet, Brahms’ Horn Trio with French hornist Pete Nowland and violinist Elizabeth Field, and in 1999 performed Dvorak’s Quintet #2 with the Da Vinci Quartet.
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.
In 2001 and 2003 Dr. Bowman performed with the Vivace Chamber Players comprised of violinist David Mallory, clarinetist Dr. Russell Burnham, flutist Dr. Heidi Pintner, and oboist Susie Lundberg.
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.
Dr. Bowman presented workshops entitled “The Joy of Improvisation” at University of Hawaii in Hilo, Hawaii in 2003 and in the Bay Area during the Summer of 2009.
Dr. Bowman has also 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, and Stress Reduction for Performers and Teachers.
He is also a registered Associate Advanced Instructor/Practitioner of Ortho-Bionomytm , a non-force healing modality developed by English Osteopath, Dr. Arthur Lincoln Pauls that mobilizes the person’s self-healing reflexes and which he utilizes in conjunction with his training in the Taubman Approach, stress management techniques, and principles of the Alexander Method to promote wellness in musicians by preventing tension, pain, and injury. He also gives Ortho-Bionomytm 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 and Junior Bach Festival in Southern 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 a regular adjudicator for the US Open Piano Competition in Oakland, California.