The Piano Magic Touch

LIONEL BOWMAN

For over half a century, pianist Lionel Bowman brought exhilaration, inspiration, and enlightenment to an international audience. A crowded, and distinguished career, with innumerable recitals, and concerto appearances – both live and for radio and television broadcast (in, inter alia, France, Britain, Holland, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Turkey, the United States, Israel, and many countries in Africa) – was recognised by election to Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music, and entry in the New Grove Dictionary as a Beethoven exponent of integrity. Professor Bowman's contribution in this sphere has been immense. At a time when it was not fashionable to do so, he pioneered, in South Africa, the performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven's piano concertos. It was a feat accomplished on five occasions. He did much else in South Africa – more, perhaps, than any other musician before or since – to make the keyboard works of Beethoven accessible to large numbers of people. As well, he gave first performances in that country of works as diverse as Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3.More enduringly, perhaps, initially as Senior Lecturer in piano at the University of Stellenbosch, and later as Associate Professor, he earned, as a tireless and inspiring teacher, the gratitude of students on two continents who have been the beneficiaries of his unique guidance.

Professor Bowman's contribution to piano pedagogy – the product of a lifetime dedicated to the consideration and resolution of technical keyboard problems – can hardly be exaggerated. Certainly, this has been recognised in Australia where, on numerous occasions, he toured the continent, giving master classes and concerts at, among other institutions, the Universities of Western Australia and Adelaide, the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, and the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts.

Neville Cohn Music Critic, Argus Cape Town,The West Australian. Official accompanist and music producer, SABC

THE AUTHOR Wallace Tate has made a significant contribution throughout a long and distinguished career as a senior examiner, Director of Studies, and later Director of the Australian Music Examinations Board, President of the West Australian Music Teachers' Association, Vice President of the Federation of Australian Music Teachers' Association, and as lecturer, adjudicator, pianist, and piano teacher. He has taught, performed and studied in England and the United States. He has also taught various subjects, including piano performance, for the Department (now School) of Music at the University of Western Australia, and at the WA Academy of Performing Arts. He received the Western Australian Award, on behalf of the National Critics Award Committee, Sydney for services to music in 1975 for originating musical development, particularly among the young.