40th anniversary for Sheffield choral conductor

The concert will be 40 years almost to the day since Alan's first professional conducting performance when the tenor soloist was Ruairi's grandfather, Kenneth Bowen, singing the same piece.

Alan, who was formerly head of music at Sheffield’s King Edward VII school, performed the piece in 1983 at the school with a choir and orchestra made up of pupils and professional musicians.

Singing the part of the ‘Evangelist’ was Kenneth Bowen who had a long career as a renowned Welsh tenor and had sung at the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969.

At the time of the concert he was also a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in addition to being an in demand soloist.

As well as Bach’s Passions, Kenneth was particularly well known for his performances of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’, the lead role of which he performed over 200 times in his career.

Kenneth died in 2018 at the age of 86.

Recalling his first conducting performance, Alan said: "I well remember this first concert and how much the Kenneth Bowen lifted the whole performance. It was a real eye-opener and privilege for the young singers in the choir.”

Young tenor Ruairi Bowen has followed in his grandfather’s footsteps.

As a student he sang in the world famous choir of King’s College, Cambridge and since graduating has sung in numerous performances as a soloist in the UK and internationally with some of the world’s best known conductors.

He has a particular affinity with the baroque period of music and, like his grandfather, has built a reputation as an interpreter of the role of ‘Evangelist’ in Bach’s settings of the Passion.

This year he will be performing in the St John Passion with four different choirs in the week leading up to Easter.

As well as Ruairi, the concert will feature more of the UK’s best young soloists including Daniel Vening (Bass) taking the part of Christ, Georgie Malcolm (Soprano), Bernadette Johns (Mezzo-Soprano), Magnus Walker (Tenor) and Emyr Jones (Baritone).

Daniel and Emyr recently achieved some of the top prizes at Sheffield’s David Clover Festival of Singing Singers’ Platform.

J. S. Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ is widely considered to be one of the greatest choral works of the baroque period and is the shorter of his two musical settings of Christ’s trial and crucifixion. It tells the story through a series of solo recitatives and dramatic choruses interspersed with reflective solo arias and chorales.

The choir take the part of the crowd calling for Christ to be crucified whilst the ‘Evangelist’ narrates the action in the words of St John’s Gospel.

Sheffield Oratorio Chorus will be performing Bach’s ‘St John Passion’ on April 1 at 7.30pm in Sheffield Cathedral. Tickets are available from the Chorus website: www.sheffieldoratorio.org.uk/concerts.