Alec Rowley (13 March 1892 – 12 January 1958) was an English composer, organist, pianist, lecturer and writer on music.
He was a dedicated teacher, broadcaster and writer; after his death the Alec Rowley Memorial Prize was established at Trinity College of Music.
[1] Rowley was married twice (initially in 1930), but neither marriage lasted, and after the late 1940s he lived on his own, at 19, Ennerdale Road, Kew Gardens.
[1] As a composer, Rowley produced a large body of works, many of which were educational pieces or were designed for children or amateur adult performers.
[4] He was the soloist in the first performance of his Second Piano Concerto at the wartime Proms in September 1940 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Henry Wood.
Rowley wrote a large number of songs and choral pieces, both sacred and secular; these include a Nativity play On Bethlehem Hill (1958).
[3][9] Rowley wrote or contributed to a number of books, mainly of an educational nature, such as Four Hands, One Piano (1940); Practical Musicianship (1941); and Extemporisation: a Treatise for Organists (1955).