About NIc rowley

Nic Rowley 

Born in Swansea in 1953, I have been involved with and in love with music for as long as I can remember, and from an early age developed parallel and complementary interests in both classical and contemporary popular music. 

My first paid gig was playing Hammond organ in a Swansea jazz club aged 14, and my school and university years provided wonderful opportunities and experiences, including winning the music composition prize at school; 2 years as principal trombone in the British Youth Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult on several never-to-be-forgotten occasions); 3 years as principal trombone in the Cambridge University Music Society orchestra (under David Wilcox); singing as a choral exhibitioner in Trinity College (under Richard Marlowe); and being musical director of ‘Footlights’ (which gave me my first opportunities to compose music for a paying audience, and which lead to the BBC radio show commission that started my professional career). 

Whilst still at secondary school, I taught trombone to beginners, and whilst at university I taught music part-time at the King’s College Choir School. After leaving university, I continued to freelance professionally as a trombonist (including performances at the Proms, and with Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten), and to work as a baritone on the choral ‘circuit’, including the choir of St James’ Piccadilly and various performances as a soloist with choral societies and early music groups. During these early years, I was privileged to study with the baritone John Carol Case, an inspired and sensitive teacher and musician.

Before long, however, it became clear that my increasing commitments as a pianist and musical director in the session world, theatre, and at the BBC – and the opportunities to compose and arrange that came with such commitments – required a diminishing involvement with the classical music scene. The experienced gained, however, has informed my work ever since, and has allowed me to have an extensive career as a composer, musical director and pianist working in the recording industry, TV, film, radio, theatre and light entertainment.

As a keyboard player, vocal coach, arranger and musical director I have worked on countless record, television and film sessions for artists including Kevin Ayers, The Blues Band, Dire Straits, The Fabulous Poodles, Fancy, Mike Heron, Janice Hoyte, Lindisfarne, Johnny Nash, Brian Protheroe, Ray Russell, Helen Shapiro, Vivian Stanshall, Gino Vanelli, and Marty Wilde. I conducted three West End musicals (including the original Kings Road production of the Rocky Horror Show) and many regional theatre productions, and also toured widely as a pianist, bandleader, arranger and conductor with artists such as Lulu, The Supremes, The Three Degrees, The Nolan Sisters, Jack Jones and Dana.

As a composer I have written written numerous advertising jingles (including for Puma, Rowntrees, Cadbury, Tesco, Black & Decker, Gillette and Pirelli), 12 theatre scores (including one produced in the West End by Cameron Macintosh), and more than 50 signature tunes and scores for TV (including Not the Nine o'Clock News, Dame Edna Everage, the News Huddlines, the Kenneth Williams Show, the Two Ronnies and Quatermass), plus many songs and library music. I have also produced on-screen logo packages for Thames TV, Anglia and the ITV network, and won two Independent Radio Advertising awards, a BTA Bronze Arrow, and a Silver Award at Cannes for my work. I have also composed National songs for the Government of the Isle of Man and the Government of Mauritius 

I have produced many commercial records, including works by the Albion Band, Dame Edna, R. D. Laing and (more recently) the Ignition Orchestra, and was the owner-director of Vandborg Studios ApS, a commercial recording facility dedicated to the development of young songwriters and performers. Whilst there I arranged and produced a tribute to Nelson Mandela that was used in South Africa as part of his memorial, and also produced and co-wrote music used during the Scottish Independence campaign. I was a house producer at Rooster Music, Copenhagen, an innovative community-based project offering recording facilities to adults recovering from serious psychiatric illness. I am also  a full member of the PRS and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and a list of the artists, brands and shows that I have been associated with is included below.

I’m an experienced teacher and lecturer, and was Head of Songwriting (and senior lecturer in composition) at the Academy of Contemporary Music where I designed and implemented new Cert HE and degree-level songwriting programmes, as well as founding an innovative Songwriting and Artist Development programme at Metropolis Studios, London. I hold a PGCE from the Institute of Education in the University of London, and give workshops and seminars at Diploma, Higher Diploma, Degree and Master’ s levels for the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Surrey, the University of Chichester, and various other music schools in the UK and in Denmark.

I was series music producer for the government-sponsored Sing Up project which encourages choir singing in schools throughout the UK as part of the Music Manifesto National Singing Program. Over 14,000 schools are now involved, and the musical learning materials on the Songbank website (the majority of which I mixed and mastered) have generated 110,000 unique downloads. I also holds vocal workshops in the UK and abroad, using music as part of an innovative team-building approach for business and industry. 

Alongside my freelance activities, I have designed, written and taught courses for undergraduate and post-graduate music students at many institutions including the, the University of Chichester, the University of Surrey, the Academy of Contemporary Music, the Leeds College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. I have comprehensive experience of curriculum development and course design, and of representing many institutions at successful validation events.

Some of the artists, shows and brands that Nic Rowley has been associated with: 

Recording and concert

* ACM Gospel Choir * The Albion Band * Kevin Ayers * Lionel Bart * The Blues Band * Boho Dancer * Lizzie Christian * Deaf School * Dire Straits * Dame Edna * Dana * Essie Jain * The Fabulous Poodles * Fancy * Gary Farr * Go Go Berlin * Guitar Duoen *Peter Firebrace * Mo Foster * Funtastic * Klaus Grønkjær * Gunni og Nitterne * Steve Haynes * Headroom * Katy Heath * Janice Hoyte * Mike Heron *Sarah Louise Ings * Ray Jackson * Jack Jones * Tammy Jones * Grace Kennedy * The Ignition Orchestra * Billy J Kramer * RD Laing * Lindisfarne * Julian Littman * Love Dimension * Lulu * Vera Lynn * Memeza  African Choir * Johnny Nash * The Nolan Sisters * Nigel Passey * Jimmy Perry * Brian Protheroe * Anders Rask * Juliet Russell * Ray Russell * The Sadista Sisters * Helen Shapiro * Sheer Elegance * Kim Sonder * Vivian Stanshall * SuperTed * The Supremes * The Three Degrees * Troublesome Creek String Band * Gino Vanelli * Isobell Ward * Bert Weedon * John Wells * Possum Whackers *Laura Whittle * Marty Wilde * Iris Williams * Kenneth Williams

TV, film, radio and theatre

* Logo packages and network promotion music packages (ITV) * Aftershave (Apollo, London West End) * Bavarian Nights (BBC TV) * Blue Remembered Hills (ITV) * Carte Blanche (Phoenix, London West End) * Cinderella (BBC Radio) * The Dame Edna Everage TV specials (BBC TV) * Dick Whittington (Leicester Haymarket and Cambridge Arts Theatre) * Eagle's Wing (Film) * Friday Night, Saturday Morning (BBC TV) * The Generation Game (BBC TV) * Grange Hill (BBC TV) * Bob Holness & Friends (BBC Radio) * The Kenneth Williams Show (BBC TV) * The Kenneth Williams Playhouse (BBC Radio) * King Cinder (BBC TV) * Larkrise To Candleford (National Theatre) * Loose Ends (BBC Radio) * Lullaby for Mrs Bentley (King's Head Theatre, London) * The Magic Cabbage (Unicorn Theatre, London) * Monster (York Theatre Royal) * The News Huddlines (BBC Radio) * Not the Nine o'Clock News (BBC TV) * Offbeat with Braden (BBC Radio) * The Oily Levantine (Prince of Wales Theatre, London) * Parkinson (BBC TV) * Pop at the Mill (BBC TV) * Phantom of the Opera (Wimbledon Theatre London) *Quatermass (Euston Films) * Reg Ackroyd's Silly Scandals (BBC Radio) * The Rocky Horror Show (King's Road Theatre, London) * The Two Ronnies (BBC TV) * Starlife (ITV) * To the Manor Born (BBC Radio) * Week Ending (BBC Radio)

Advertising

* Army & Navy * Art Wallpapers * Black & Decker (Cannes Silver Award, BTA Bronze Arrow) * Bold * British Island Airways * Brown Bear * Budgen * Cadbury's * Cannon (Radio Advertising Award winner) * Chambourcy * Dodge City * Evening Standard * Green Cross Code * Health Education Council * Jeyes * Johnson & Johnson * Kotex * KP * Kwiksave * Lucozade * The Motorcycle Show (Radio Advertising Award winner) * Palitoy * Pilkington Glass * Pirelli * Puma* Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles * Tesco * Vogue