Strathaven Choral Society
Spring 2005 - Stabat Mater - Antonín Dvořák
Michael Bawtree was born in Devon in 1975. He spent the year before university as Assistant organist at King's School in Auckland, New Zealand. In 1994 he became Organ Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge and graduated with a degree in music in 1997; earlier the same year Michael became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, winning three prizes as a result of the examinations. Whilst at Cambridge he travelled extensively, performing with the Chapel Choir across Europe and in Hong Kong, New Zealand and Canada.
For five years, Michael was Assistant Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Suffolk. With the Cathedral Choir he broadcast frequently on BBC Radio, toured to Washington and New England and made three CD recordings. In September last year, Michael moved to Glasgow to take up a two-year postgraduate scholarship at the RSAMD studying orchestral conducting. Earlier this year he was Assistant Conductor for a production of Verdi's Falstaff and Music Director for Britten's church parable Curlew River at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh.
Solo organ recital engagements have taken Michael to cathedrals across the British Isles as well as to New England, California, Bermuda and Switzerland. In September 2003 he was invited to perform in Copenhagen as part of a festival of English music. In Spring 2005 future engagements include concerts in Scotland, Connecticut and at Washington National Cathedral.
He is also one half of the Busch-Bawtree piano duo, a collaboration with American composer Richard Busch which has included annual duet recitals both sides of the Atlantic since 2000. Outside his musical life, he has a passion for travel and enjoys photography and reading, when time allows!