Colin Touchin
{{Short description|British conductor and educator (1953–2022)}}
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Colin Michael Touchin (3 April 1953 – 30 September 2022) was a British conductor, composer and music educator. His compositions include two oratorios, four orchestral sinfoniettas, and works for wind band and choral groups.{{Cite web |url=http://www.musicroom.hk/Documents/201705CT%20Biography.pdf |title=Biography, musicroom.hk}}
Biography
Colin Touchin was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School and Keble College, Oxford.{{Cite web
|url=http://www.warwickmusic.com/Composers/S+-+T/Colin+Touchin
|title=Colin Touchin, Warwick Music
|access-date=26 March 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091216062228/http://www.warwickmusic.com/composers/s+-+t/colin+touchin
|archive-date=16 December 2009
|url-status=dead
}}
Touchin taught for eight years at Chetham's School of Music, and for two years was Head of Composition. For over a decade he was Director of Music at the University of Warwick.{{Cite web
|url=https://www.heart-of-england-recorder-orchestra.org.uk/History.php
|title=Heart of England Recorder Orchestra, 'History'
|access-date=2 October 2022}} While in the UK he played in a piano duo with his friend Peter Donohoe.{{cite web| last = Barnett| first = Rob| title = Then Again: British Piano Music of the 80s and 90s| publisher = Classical Music on the Web| url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/july01/ThenAgain.htm |access-date=2008-06-14 }} In 2005 he founded and conducted the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in Coventry, made up of professional and skilled amateur musicians from the Coventry and Warwickshire area.{{cite web| url=https://www.spiresmusic.org/ |title=Spires Music website | access-date=5 October 2022}} Spires recorded a CD of his compositions in 2012.{{cite web| url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/new-music-cd-celebrates-coventrys-3021383 |title='New music CD celebrates Coventry's history and legends' |work=Coventry News |date=28 August 2012 |access-date=29 August 2012}} He also conducted West Midland Wind Orchestra
In Frankfurt he was Chief Conductor of the Lufthansa Orchestra, an ensemble made up of pilots, flight attendants, technicians and office workers who make music in their spare time.{{cite web| url=https://issuu.com/makingmusic_uk/docs/highnotes_38_final_issuu |title=Highnotes, Issue 38, Autumn, 2018 |date=September 2018 |page=11 |access-date=5 October 2022}}{{Cite web |url=https://lh-orchester.de/dirigent/ |title=Der Dirigent |access-date=2 October 2022}} In Hong Kong he was musical director of the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, the a capella female choir Grace Notes, and guest conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and Tak-Ming Philharmonic Winds.{{Cite web
|url=https://www.allensbankmusic.com/bio-3 |title=Allensbank Music: Colin Touchin
|access-date=2 October 2022}}
His home was in Warsaw, where he died of pancreatic cancer.{{Cite web |url=https://slippedisc.com/2022/10/british-composer-69-dies-in-warsaw/ |title=British composer, 69, dies in Warsaw |work=Slipped Disc |date=2 October 2022 |access-date=3 October 2022}}
Selected works
- A Beade of Amber (for the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales)
- Brief Intervals for saxophone quartet
- Choose the Light, oratorio (2012)
- Coventry Suite for orchestra
- Hilarion, oratorio for baritone, choir and orchestra (1987)
- Idyllwild Suite for wind band
- Impressions of Don Giovanni, chamber ensemble (1991)
- in memoriam Cathy, chamber ensemble
- Lambs & Tygers for chorus and orchestra
- Little Red Riding Hood, ballet for youth orchestra
- Saint George of Coventry, chorus and orchestra
- Sinfonietta No 2 for orchestra (1982)
- Sinfonietta No.4 for orchestra (2021)
- Sonatella for piano (1990)
- Three Suffolk Pictures for wind band
- Yon twelve-winded sky for string quartet (1991){{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/965800 |title=Music Listings |journal=The Musical Times |issue=1787 |date=January 1992 |jstor=965800 |access-date=5 October 2022}}{{Cite web |url=http://andymdix.dx.am/BC/bccommissions.html |title=Bromsgrove Concerts, commissions |work=andymdix.dx.am |access-date=5 October 2022}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH9LdxRgc-c Sinfonietta No. 4, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, cond. Colin Touchin]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061109094137/http://www.warwickmusic.com/Composers/S+-+T/Colin+Touchin Warwick Music Composers]
- {{discogs artist|Colin Touchin}}
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Category:English classical composers
Category:English conductors (music)
Category:British male conductors (music)
Category:21st-century British classical composers
Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford
Category:Academics of the University of Warwick
Category:People educated at William Hulme's Grammar School
Category:English male classical composers
Category:21st-century British conductors (music)
Category:21st-century British male musicians
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