Meurig Bowen


Meurig Bowen is a British arts administrator who works mainly in festival and orchestral programming. He is Head of Artistic Planning for BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales.
Meurig Bowen is a son of the Welsh tenor Kenneth Bowen and the brother of the organist Geraint Bowen.
Bowen was educated at William Ellis School, London, and King's College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar. Six years at a London artist management company, where he was Administrator of The Hilliard Ensemble, were followed by a further six years working in Sydney as artistic administrator of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He returned to the UK as director of the Lichfield Festival, and subsequently head of programming at the Aldeburgh Festival, before becoming Artistic Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival, where he succeeded Martyn Brabbins, in 2007.
Bowen stepped down from his role at the Cheltenham Music Festival in December 2017 to take up the new role of Head of Artistic Planning at BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. He is also the classical programmer for St George's, Bristol.
In April 2017, Quarto Books published The School of Music, a children’s book he co-wrote with his wife Rachel, and illustrated by Daniel Frost. The English language edition has been followed in 2018 by translations available in Brazil, Bulgaria, China, France, Korea and Russia.
Bowen is also a music journalist and commentator who regularly writes for the national press, and he also writes distinctive CD liner notes, notably on the Hyperion label.
Bowen’s two-hander for actor and pianist, Erik Satie: Memoirs of a Pear-Shaped Life, was premiered at the 2015 Cheltenham Music Festival, and has since been performed at the Presteigne and Canterbury Festivals, St George’s Bristol, in Oxford and New York.