Gwyn Arch
Gwyn Arch | |
---|---|
Born | 4 May 1931 ![]() Southampton ![]() |
Died | June 2021 ![]() |
Occupation | Composer, choir director ![]() |
Awards |
Gwyn Arch MBE (4 May 1931 – June 2021) was a British composer and choir director.
Early life[]
Arch was born in Southampton on 5 April 1931, to a Welsh father.[1] He was raised in Birmingham and then Ipswich, where he attended secondary school.[1] After national service he studied English at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge.[2][3] He played in jazz bands there and at University of Oxford,[3] where he took a postgraduate diploma in education.[2]
Career[]
Arch taught English at Rickmansworth Grammar School for nine years, studying musical composition at Trinity College London in his spare time.[3]
He was Director of Music at Bulmershe College from 1964 to 1985.[4][5] In the 1960s he arranged music for BBC Home Service radio programmes for schools, and in the 1970s, he made several appearances, as a conductor, on the BBC Television programme Seeing and Believing.[6]
He was musical director of the South Chiltern Choral Society for almost 50 years, until 2014.[7] In 1971 he established the Reading Male Voice Choir and served as the choir's musical director until 2015.[5]
He was a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Composition Fellow of Trinity College London, and for ten years an Associated Board examiner.[5]
His oeuvre includes many choral works and songs, arranged for mixed and male choirs.[5]
He marketed his arrangements for male choirs, as sheet music via his company Grove Music.[a][8]
Arch was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2006 Birthday Honours, for services to music in Berkshire.[5][9]
Personal life[]
Arch met Jane, subsequently a head teacher, when he was at Oxford University, where he was musical director of the Experimental Theatre Club and she was in the choir.[4] They married two years later.[4] Their son David Arch is also a conductor, arranger and composer and is the musical director on the BBC Television show Strictly Come Dancing.[4] They also had a younger son, Jonathan, and moved to Sonning Common in 1964.[4]
Arch's death was announced on 8 June 2021.[10]
Notes[]
- ^ Not to be confused with the Grove Dictionary of Music.
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Gwyn Arch | composer". www.hebu-music.com. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The man who made music come alive". Henley Standard. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Gwyn Arch". Good Music. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Our boy's the musical star of Strictly but hates fame". Henley Standard. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Gwyn Arch - arranger, choral director biography". Singers.com. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "Gwyn Arch". BBC Genome. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "Fond farewell to retiring musical director of the South Chiltern Choral Society". BerkshireLive. 11 July 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "TTBB Music for Male Voice Choirs". Grove Music. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "No. 58014". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 17 June 2006. p. 14.
- ^ "Sad to learn that the composer Gwyn Arch has died". Banks Music. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- 1931 births
- 2021 deaths
- British choral conductors
- 20th-century British composers
- 21st-century British composers
- People from Southampton
- People from Birmingham, West Midlands
- People from Ipswich
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
- Teachers of English
- Alumni of Trinity College of Music
- Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge
- Alumni of the University of Oxford