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September 2022 Obituaries

Our summary of those the
classical music world has lost this month

 

Here are brief details of some of the people lost to the classical music world during September 2022. May they rest in peace.

British composer, conductor and teacher Colin Michael Touchin died in Warsaw from pancreatic cancer on 30 September, aged sixty-nine. He was born on 3 April 1953 and studied at Keble College Oxford. He wrote two oratorios, four sinfoniettas, plus choral and wind band music. He taught at Chetham's School of Music and the University of Warwick. He founded the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in Coventry, and this group made a CD of Touchin's compositions in 2012. He also worked overseas, conducting in Germany and Hong Kong.

Dutch/Swiss organist, organ-builder and classifier of musical instruments, Bernhardt Edskes, died on 21 September, aged eighty-one. Born in Groningen in the Netherlands on 28 October 1940 into a musical family, he became known for the consistency in his restorations and reconstructions of Renaissance and Baroque organs.

Bernhardt Edskes (1940-2022). Photo © Peter Wassing archive
Bernhardt Edskes (1940-2022). Photo © Peter Wassing archive

Serbian composer, church organist and teacher Svetozar Saša Kovačević died on 18 September, aged seventy-two. Born in Žabalj on 3 January 1950, he studied music in Novi Sad and then composition with Victor Safranek, Nikola Petina, Rudolf Bruchi and Vasilij Mokranjac. He wrote over three hundred works, including solo songs, instrumental music (including for accordion and guitar), as well as orchestral and chamber music, and became one of Serbia's best known contemporary composers.

German conductor Jörg Faerber died in Willich on 15 September, aged ninety-three. Born in Stuttgart on 18 June 1929, he studied at Musikhochschule Stuttgart and later in 1960 he founded the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn (WKO) and he retained artistic and financial control over the organisation for over forty years, recording and touring internationally.

German pianist and conductor Lars Vogt died on 5 September, aged only fifty-one.

Posted 25 September 2022 and last updated 9 October 2022 by Keith Bramich

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AUGUST 2022 OBITUARIES

 

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