Robin Bowman worked during the 1970s as assistant to Pierre Bernac, for whom Poulenc wrote more than half of his songs. From 1978 to 2008, Robin was French consultant to the National Opera Studio, London, and from 1997 to 2008 was Head of Vocal Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. For twenty-five years he taught at the Académie Internationale Maurice Ravel, and for a further eleven at the Académie Internationale d’Eté de Nice. An accompanist and collaborative pianist of international reputation, he was on the panel for the 2013 Kathleen Ferrier competition, gives masterclasses for the Oxford Lieder Festival in audition technique, is a visiting tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire, specialist vocal external assessor for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and on the staff of three of Britain’s largest vocal summer schools.
