Robert Andrew Howard was born in
Widnes, Cheshire, in 1977, and grew up in the traditional Lancashire
town of Prescot, Merseyside.
The son of a proud trade
unionist, Robert grew up with a strong sense of community,
responsibility and concern for the welfare of others, and this is a
heritage that informs the work he does today.
He attended Evelyn Avenue
Primary School and then Prescot Comprehensive School, becoming
proficient in an array of musical instruments along the way - chiefly
violin, piano and bassoon. During his teenage years, Robert played with
the local Knowsley Youth Orchestra, the Wirral Youth Orchestra and the
esteemed Merseyside Youth Orchestra, based at the Liverpool Philharmonic
Hall. Alongside performing, he developed a keen interest in composition.
It was unsurprising that after taking his A-levels at Knowsley Community
College in Huyton, he went to Birmingham University and then Goldsmiths
College, London, to study music and composition, eventually earning his
doctorate.
It was during those years that
he established a reputation for himself as an exciting new composer and
musical talent. Drawing inspiration from neo-classicism, minimalism and
the twentieth-century tradition of British music represented by
Vaughan-Williams, Walton and Arnold among others, Robert collected a
number of awards for his impressive compositions, including the Gregynog
Young Composers Award of Wales as well as several prizes for his
numerous piano works.
Click here to read more about Robert's time in
London.
After
several years teaching, performing and composing in England's heady,
busy capital, Robert felt the call of the town that formed him, and he
returned to Prescot in 2003. He gained a PGCE at Edge Hill University,
Ormskirk, and took up his first secondary teaching post at St Wilfrid's
Catholic High
School, Bootle. He relished the role, playing a key part in the school's
application to achieve Performing Arts status.
His steady rise through the
ranks of education was such that after two years he moved on to become
Head of Music at Deyes High School, Maghull, where he now looks after a
thriving department known locally for its impressive mix of talent in
all musical genres. Over 15 extra-curricular music clubs, 14
peripatetic teachers teaching over 100 students and at least 10 concerts
a year make it a lively centre of music. Its students have
performed at the Rose Theatre in Edge Hill University to great acclaim.
Annual events include the Carol Service, Electric (rock) Concert, Deyes
High Talent Show and the hosting of Sefton borough's singing competition
Singposium.
Students at Deyes High can sit
GCSE Music, A Level Music and A Level Music Technology, and the
department enjoys a 100-percent pass rate. In 2009, all students gained
A to C grades in GCSE. Throughout the year, the school's musicians take
part in regional festivals and competitions, such as Bootle Young
Musician of the Year, Southport WOW Factor and Crosby Festival. The 2008
production of Grease was a resounding success, and plans are
afoot for Les Miserables in 2010. Most spectacularly, in 2008,
Gospel Voices were selected to take part in the filming of BBC1's
Last Choir Standing.
As well as teaching commitments,
Rob is keen to maintain an interest in primary-school development as an
LEA governor of his own former school, Evelyn in Prescot, Merseyside.
Click here to read more about this.
Rob is also Associate Tutor for
the PGCE Music course at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire. He
lectures trainee music teachers on Contemporary Music and Composition as
well as advising them on dealing with challenging classroom behaviour.
He maintains an interest in
conducting and composing. He is Assistant Conductor to both the Knowsley
Orchestra and the Phoenix Concert Orchestra in Liverpool, and was also
Musical Director for the Prescot and Whiston Methodist Players'
pantomimes, with combined annual audiences of 1000. As
Composer-/Arranger-in-Residence for the Knowsley Orchestra, he has
recently composed and conducted his Wesleyan Overture (2004), Festive
Fanfare (2005) and Festival Suite (2006-7). Meanwhile, since joining COMA Northwest (Contemporary
Music-Making for Amateurs) on his return to Merseyside in 2003, he has
composed and enjoyed multiple successful performances of Carousel (2004)
and Three-Way Piece (2005).
Alongside playing violin, viola,
piano and percussion, as a freelance bassoonist Rob is regularly invited
to play with amateur and semi-professional orchestras throughout the
northwest. Recent engagements have been with the Knowsley, Phoenix,
Ormskirk, Warrington, Wigan, Neston Festival, Harlech Orchestra Course,
Ellesmere Orchestra Course, Wirral, Wirral Symphony, Crosby Symphony,
Liverpool University Symphony and
Liverpool Mozart Orchestras, and St Helens Sinfonietta.
When time allows, Rob joins Cobwebs, the
community orchestra of the Northern Sinfonia which plays throughout
Cumbria, County Durham and Northumbria. Robert frequently performs as a
bassoon soloist, with a repertoire including concertos by Mozart and
Weber, which he played with Port Sunlight Orchestra and Mensa Musicians'
Orchestra in 2009.
In 2005, Robert founded the
Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts, and is well-known in the local
community for pioneering a year-round programme of arts and music in the
town. He continues to perform, conduct and compose.
His vision for community arts
and music is informed not only by his father's legacy, but by his strong
Christian faith. Robert sings bass in the choir of Prescot Parish
Church, where he has also served on a Shared Ministry Group and the
Parochial Church Council.
Outside the musical sphere,
Robert enjoys vintage British TV and film, and always finds time to tour the British countryside, usually
sampling a real ale or two along the way. He is also a keen amateur
artist and photographer, and has exhibited his work as part of the
Knowsley Open Art Exhibition.
________________________________
Dr Robert Howard - LEA Governor at Evelyn Community Primary School
The following was written for Evelyn School Newsletter in 2005
I decided to become a governor
at Evelyn for one very simple reason: because I enjoyed seven very happy
years there as a pupil (not too many years ago!). This was back in the
days when Mrs Arnold had a class of her own and there was a strict, but
very good head teacher called Mrs Bamforth. Mrs Johnson was also there
then, and I remember a fantastic dinner lady called Mrs Lomax. I made
lots of friends at Evelyn and most of us went on to Prescot School
together. I've kept in touch with lots of them and we often threaten to
organise a reunion - but never quite get round to doing it!
My time at Evelyn in the 1980s
is filled with great memories. The highlight was playing Grandpa Joe in
the school production of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory. I had to learn lots of lines and dress up like an old man -
but it was great fun and a video was made, which my mum keeps playing to
everyone who visits her!
I can vividly remember lots of
trips: to Lake Windermere (on the boat and steam train); the ballet in
Manchester; the Water Works(!); Chester Zoo; and Haigh Hall. Also, we
used to walk to the swimming baths at Maryville School each week (once
one of my mates got a very sore head on the way there when he walked
into a lamppost!) and we'd dress up for fancy dress competitions (I was
Rupert the Bear!).
However, it was the free music
lessons that really shaped what I do now as an adult. At Evelyn I
started violin lessons, and then took up the bassoon and piano at
Prescot School. I then started to write my own music and conduct. I
realised that I had found something I really enjoyed and wanted to do.
After studying at Roby College and Birmingham and London Universities, I
decided to go into music teaching. I now do lots of different things in
music. By day I teach in an 11-18 Liverpool high school where we have
lots of after-school music clubs and perform in our own concerts and
musicals. In the evenings I organise music events, festivals (including
one in Prescot), play in orchestras and conduct. Sometimes I help out
those who are training to teach and, of course, I like to keep an eye on
my old primary school by being a governor. Governors are adults who are
attached to the school in some way (parents, teachers, politicians,
members of the community etc) who meet with the best interests of the
school and its pupils at heart. They try to do all they can to keep high
standards and to make things even better. Oh, and they drink tea and eat
nice biscuits, too!
I recently found my old Evelyn
School Prospectus, from Mrs Bamforth's days (1981!). It opens with a
quote from a lady who first had the idea of nursery schools in this
countr (Rachel MacMillan). She said...
...teach each and every
child as if he or she were your own.
That standard of individual care
and attention is something that I try to give in my own teaching. It is
also something that Evelyn has always done really well and continues to
do today.
Dr Robert Howard
________________________________
London - 1998-2003
Robert spent his
five years in London studying Composition full-time to PhD level at
Goldsmiths College, University of London. This was made possible with
very generous support from Birmingham University, Prescot Parish Church
and various trusts, including the Patrick Foster Memorial Fund. He
studied with Philip Cashian and Sadie Harrison at Goldsmiths while
having occasional tutorials with many other composers, including Stephen
Montague, Anthony Payne, Diana Burrell, Michael Finnissy, David
Matthews, Howard Skempton, Daryl Runswick, Joe Cutler, Hywel Davies and
Roger Redgate.
Throughout this
period, Robert developed his now-familiar compositional style.
Essentially a 'minaturist', his concise works came to be characterised
by his wide variety of artistic interests: minimalism, serialism, modern
art (especially sculpture and stained glass), left-wing literature,
20th-century British music and amateur musicians. Robert successfully
completed commissions from Contemporary Music-Making for Amateurs
(COMA), Hampshire Music Service, Knowsley Youth Orchestra and oboist
Maria Thomas, among others. His music has been regularly performed
across London and beyond, on a monthly basis, by both amateur and
professional performers, such as IXION, City of London Sinfonia,
Northern Sinfonia, Concilium Brass Ensemble, Simon Limbrick, Stephen
Gutman, Gemini and the Kreutzer Quartet. Incalcando (since disbanded),
based at Goldsmiths College, published Robert's work, several of which
were shortlisted by SPNM for performance, and won major awards, such as
the Gregynog Young Composers Award of Wales in 2000.
Throughout his time
in London, Robert lectured in Composition and coordinated the Extension
Degree (a one-year foundation course for overseas students) at
Goldsmiths College. He also occasionally taught bassoon and worked
part-time as a concerts steward at the Royal Albert Hall for five years.
He continued to composer for, conduct and perform (on bassoon) with many
amateur ensembles, including the Goldsmiths Sinfonia (touring Kuwait in
2001), Goldsmiths Contemporary Music Group, London Charity Orchestra,
London Chamber Group, Birmingham University Symphony Orchestra, Morley
College Chamber Orchestra, Kingston Chamber Orchestra, Brentwood
Orchestra, Hampshire Youth Training Wind Band, Forum Sinfonietta, COMA
London and National Ensembles, and Hampstead Music Club (featuring a
highly successful wind quintet). He was a very active member of the
Forum London Composers' Group, becoming Chair of the organisation in
2001 (until 2003). This was a time of great change and progress for the
group: a major publication was launched (ReSound Pack, featuring Rob's
Promenade IV); a formal link was forged with the British Academy
of Composers and Songwriters; an amateur chamber orchestra was formed
(Forum Sinfonietta); professional performers were hired for workshops
and concerts (eg Fourth Dimension); and an annual New Music Festival was
launched.
