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Edward Cowie was born in England but is firmly an Australian composer! Described recently in the New York Times as 'considered by many to be the greatest living composer directly inspired by the natural world', Cowie has maintained a continuous stream of works inspired by the sounds, habitats and dynamics of wild sounding creatures and the form and atmospheres of where they live.

In 1964 he studied under Peter Racine Fricker at Morley College, and then privately with Alexander Goehr. In 1971 he was awarded a Chopin Fellowship to travel to Poland where he studied with Witold Lutoslawski. In the same year he received the Radcliffe Award and a Gulbenkian Award for collaboration with the Ballet Rambert.

His work as composer, painter and scientist has flowered in a totally integrated manner. Since 1973 his compositions have been performed widely in Britain, Europe, USA, and south east Asia, and Australia.He has been featured as central artist in a number of major festivals including the Brighton Festival (1980), the Leeds International Festival (1983) and the Adelaide Festival (1984), Brisbane Biennale and five times at the BBC Promenade Concerts. He has also gained increasing exhibitions as a painter with over 30 one man shows in America, Britain, Germany and Australia and continues to publish papers on special aspects of ornithology in scientific journals.

As a conductor, Cowie has conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where was created the first Granada Composer/Conductor with thecRLPO. This to further conducting work with tge Philomusica of London, BBC Singers, the ABC symphony orchestras of Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmania, Queensland, and also the Seymour Group and the Australia Ensemble. His music has been featured in major festivals in Europe, the USA and Australia.

He has held the positions of Associate Professor of Composition, University of Lancaster, 1973-1983; Guest Professor, University of Kassel, West Germany, 1979 and Visiting Professor, University of Florida, 1978. From 1983 to 1988 he was appointed Professor and Head of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong. In 1989, he took up the position of Professor and Director of the Australian Arts Fusion Centre at James Cook University, Townsville up to 1994.

In 1995, Cowie returned to England, and was Professor and Director of Research at Dartington College of Arts in Devon until 2008. On returning to England, he rapidly re-established himself as a major composer on the British scene though continued to compose work influenced by his 12 years spent in Australia. He was created the first BBC Composer in Association with the BBC Singers and was also the first Artist in Residence with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Since 2001, he has been signed exclusively with United Music Publishing (UMP).

Though recorded on several international record labels from the early 1980s, he was invited to sign exclusively with Metier Divine Arts label in 2019, since which time 15 portrait albums of his works ( 40+ compositions from solo, chamber, choral and orchestral) have been released to great international recognition and acclaim.

After some 30 years living in the UK and France, Cowie returned to live in Australia again with his distinguished Australian visual artist wife, Heather Cowie. The couple live in Armidale in the NSW tablelands.

He writes,

'Since my first visit to Australia in 1981, and in the subsequent 13 years that I lived and worked here, I have freely accepted that it is my natural spiritual and inspirational homeland. It's vastness ; diversity; complexity and deeply inspiring land and sea-scapes is a constant source of new sonic materials for me. Returning as I have to this now familiar creative catalystic phenomenon, my music and visual output will continue to confront me with ever-enlarging soundscapes and formal vistas. Asked recently what influence tge history of music has had on my musical output, I found myself replying..."almost nothing compared to the influences of NATURAL history!".

Edward Cowie — current to November 2025