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COLIN TOUCHIN
Colin Touchin was a British conductor, composer, clarinettist, recorder player, festival adjudicator and broadcaster. He was Chief Conductor of the Lufthansa Orchestra in Frankfurt. In Hong Kong he was Musical Director of the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, Grace Notes a capella female choir, guest conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and Tak-Ming Philharmonic Winds, and Honorary Artistic Consultant to the SWAN Academy. For RTHK Radio 4 he was a weekly host and presenter of numerous music programmes, including In Touch With Music. He has guest-conducted the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong with Hayley Westenra, and annually in The Snowman and The Bear with films, and the Hong Kong Police Band in the RTHK Concert in the Park. He has conducted 4 of these annual televised concerts.
Colin’s distinguished career includes fifteen years as Director of Music at the University of Warwick, UK and conductor of award-winning ensembles including the University of Warwick Chamber Choir, Warwickshire County Youth Orchestra and the Birmingham Schools’ Wind Orchestra. He has conducted the National Youth Wind Orchestras of Great Britain, Wales, Luxembourg and Hong Kong, and has founded several ensembles in the UK, notably the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus and Youth Orchestra in Coventry and the National Youth Recorder Orchestras.
His compositions and arrangements have been broadcast on UK BBC Radio 3 and Hong Kong’s RTHK Radio 4: these include his wind band composition entitled Eclipse which was a selected set piece for the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival in 2014.
Colin was very active in music education, having conducted and led workshops for students and teachers in 20 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, China and several European countries. He has also been involved in the National School Band Association Festivals in the UK and the National Youth Recorder Orchestras in Holland, Australia and the UK. He has been an adjudicator member of the British and International Federation of Festivals for 45 years, has served as their elected Vice-Chairman and was selected to be one of the first 6 Fellows.
Sadly, Colin passed away at his home in Warsaw, Poland on 30th September, 2022 following a battle with a particularly aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. He will be sorely missed.