Composer, painter, broadcaster, natural scientist and academic, Edward Cowie, has returned to Australia to live after spending 28 years in the UK and Europe.
He has decided to settle in Armidale in NSW because as he says, ‘Nature- wild places and wild things have always inspired my music and my art. I know many parts of Australia but not the New England Tablelands.”
“Here, I know I will find endless inspiration from the countryside around. I know Armidale to be hugely interested in the Arts and so coming here to live represents a perfect opportunity to create more new music, art and- if invited- to teach and share my experiences of acts o creation.”
Considered one of the world’s most individual and original creative artist and communicator, Cowie is almost unique in his extraordinary blend of art with the natural sciences. He has made award- winning TV programmes and radio series or the BBC and ABC.
He has conducted major orchestras and ensembles including BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and four of the ABC symphony orchestras.
His music has been featured in major festivals worldwide including 5 times at the BBC Proms; featured composer at the Adelaide Festival and Brisbane Biennale. Awards include the Radcliffe International Composers’ Prize; Prix Italia (for his BBCTV2 film on Leonardo); Gulbenkian Award and a Chopin Fellowship.
He has also performed as pianist in many public concerts and broadcasts.
Already extensively recorded, Cowie was signed on an exclusive contract with Metier Divine Arts Label in 2019. A steady stream of releases has brought universal praise. He is published by United
Music Publishing, UK (UMP).
In addition to his musical activities, he is equally renowned as a visual artist with more than 40 one-man shows in seven different countries. His paintings and drawings are in public and private collections in 19 countries.
He has always been in great demand as public speaker/entertainer, including having given the Gertrude Langer Memorial Lectures in Brisbane and the Ruskin Lectures at Oxford University.
He is also a hugely respected academic- holding a doctorate in music and a second doctorate in theoretical physics, mathematics, fine art and music. He was the inaugural Chair and Founder of the School of Creative Arts at Wollongong University and single-handedly revolutionised practice and
research in the creative arts to Masters and Doctoral Levels.
Now a Professor Emeritus, Cowie has held major professorships in the UK, Germany, the USA and Australia.
He sees himself as ‘a passionately committed teacher and enabler of creative thinking and action’.
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