Starting at 6am this Sunday, Calvin Bowman will embark on an epic feat of endurance so physically demanding he’ll have a masseur on hand to aid his recovery
When Calvin Bowman really gets going on the organ, both hands fly across the keyboard in different directions and his legs pump away as each foot plays a different part on the pedal-board. During pedal solos, he has to hang on to the seat so he doesn’t fall off. We don’t think of organ players as athletes, but maybe we should: there’s a level of dexterity, coordination, muscular control and core strength involved in playing the instrument that rivals many sports.
This Sunday, the Australian composer and organist adds endurance to the list: across 16 hours, starting at 6am, he’ll play Johann Sebastian Bach’s entire catalogue of organ music, back-to-back, on the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC)’s behemoth instrument, in a free concert as part of Brisbane festival. It’s the third time he’s performed this feat, after performances at Melbourne festival in 2009 and Mona Foma in Launceston in 2022.
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