On February 10th, the University of Iowa Organ Department hosted an amazing feat of organ playing by Kevin Bowyer of Glasgow University. Kevin played the entire Sorabji’s Second Organ Symphony as the inaugural performance on the university’s new Klais organ. Kevin played using Power Music from Cambron Software and said afterwards – “Power Music performed flawlessly throughout, as I knew it would.”
Kevin Bowyer, Glasgow University Chapel Organist (Scotland, UK), has performed and broadcast all over the world, and has released around ninety recordings, including all of Bach’s organ music for the Nimbus recording label. His recital repertoire is enormous and ever expanding; in an article restricted to European organ music of the twentieth century, he mentions over one hundred composers whose music he has played.
Though he sees contemporary music as his vocation, he plays organ music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods onwards, and has shown an appreciation for the qualities of historical instruments in such music.
Updated 25/7/2023
“Going Digital” has so many advantages over paper but one of the most common questions we are asked is “How do I get my music into a digital display system?” “I want to use Power Music on my iPad, tablet or laptop, so how do I get my music?” This article describes three ways to get your music into Power Music and start taking advantage of using electronic music display.
In the blog post, we will take a look at:
As always we welcome your comments and feedback on articles.
A review of page turners including the new flic 2 Bluetooth button.The art of being an efficient (human) page turner is a highly sought after skill for performing musicians, particularly those whose hands are occupied on a keyboard or keyboards. But not all musicians have a page turner.
I remember well the time a few years ago I attended a Christmas concert in the Kelvingrove Art Galleries in Glasgow, where Kevin Bowyer was manfully struggling with a large book of music on the piano, as he accompanied the choir singing carols. Watching the pages of the book slowly flipping over, as if in slow motion and then Kevin’s antics at getting back to the page he was wanting to play was most amusing. I have to say that today Kevin is now a total convert to electronic music display and no longer has this nightmare.
So if you are thinking of moving to electronic music display or are already a user, I thought a short review of the current crop of (non-human) page turners might be helpful. I am only reviewing ones I have personal experience of and the opinions expressed in this blog are mine. These pedals all work really well with Power Music. If you have other experiences with page turners please feel free to post a comment on this post.
With an increasing number of music display apps coming onto the market, we thought it was time to talk about why our users think Power Music is great! All the points below are taken from comments we have received from our users over the years by email, phone and face-to-face at exhibitions.
We always welcome feedback about Power Music so feel free to send us your comments and suggestions, especially ones like this recent comment from Jeroen Jacobs – a German pianist…
Your software is best in the world. I have not seen better, more stable, more versatile, more easy to use software. It’s just great. Never need anything else.
I use it together with a Microsoft Surface Pro.
It’s super stable.
Back in September 2018 Gavin contacted us about wanting a suitable page turner pedal for use at the organ. Unfortunately, there was really nothing available off-the-shelf. He was willing to do a bit of soldering and carpentry so I suggested the AirTurn BT200 was a suitable “donor” pedal for his project. Gavin has been busy and this post, written by him, explains the project. Gavin started working life as a BBC Sound Engineer then after 20yrs changed tack to be a music teacher. Now retired early. He has played the organ since he was 11 and got his ABRSM performance diploma in 2013.
This is his story…
Some time ago, we got an interesting request from one of our long-time Power Music users. Kevin Bowyer is a world famous organist and now an author with six novels under his belt (find out more). He uses Power Music on a number of organs and turned the pages by tapping the touchscreen. He recently has got an impressive new 4 manual organ installed in his house.
His problem is that his arms are too short!!
The distance to the touchscreen is 35 inches so he was looking for an alternative page turner – obviously not a foot pedal as his feet are very busy on the organ pedals!
So after a bit of research we have found a company that produces a USB button which works perfectly with Power Music and hundreds of other apps.
We first met Philip at Spring Harvest in Minehead a few years ago when he visited the Cambron stand. Some time later, his interest in Power Music was re-awakened when he read an article about another famous organist, Kevin Bowyer, who uses Power Music at Glasgow University Chapel and for recitals around the world.
Philip now uses two Power Music systems – a 27 inch touchscreen system in the chapel of Cranleigh School and a 24 inch touchscreen system for performing “on the road”.
