Spires Music Coventry
Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus
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Jack Lovell-Huckle
Artistic Director
Jack has been Chorus Director and Conductor of Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus since 2015, and he is now our Artistic Director. He is a prolific conductor who leads orchestras, choirs and opera
companies across the Midlands, the North and Wales. In addition to his position here at Spires, he is Music Director at Stafford Sinfonia, Opera Ddraig in Cardiff, Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham
Philharmonic Orchestra and Associate Conductor with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.​
Jack studied Music at the University of Birmingham and went on to study conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He was Assistant Conductor for an award-winning production of Britten’s Paul Bunyan with WNO Youth Opera in 2013; Assistant Conductor of the Royal Opera House’s production of The Firework Makers Daughter in December 2015; and Music Director of Handel’s Acis and Galatea by Taunton Festival Opera, with world-renowned bass-baritone Donald Maxwell.
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Jack's work with Spires Music has been wide-ranging and varied. The orchestra continues to extend its performances, and instrumentalists travel from distant places to join Jack for Spires’ Orchestral Play days as well as our formal concerts. He leads Spires in well-known works such as Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Requiem and Grande Messe, Haydn's Creation, Handel's Messiah and Faure’s Requiem. Jack has also introduced demanding and exciting programmes: an illustrated lecture Exploring Handel, which examined Handel’s brazen stealing of other composers’ music; Advent music from Bach, Praetorius, Handel’s Messiah, and Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noel alongside unfamiliar carols across the centuries; and now DvoÅ™ák’s 9th Symphony and Amy Beach’s Mass in E Flat. Instrumentalists and singers alike enjoy the demands Jack makes of them.
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His most recent programmes have led us into fascinating explorations of musical themes whose tantalising titles (The Changing Seasons; The Sun, the Moon and the Stars) enchant performers and the audience with the excitement of both familiar and unfamiliar music from the past and present.
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Alistair Kennedy
Orchestra Leader
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After completing a degree in Classics from Liverpool University, Alistair went on to study violin at the Birmingham Conservatoire. He graduated in 1996 and went on to pursue a very busy freelance career, playing with a number of orchestras including Orchestra of the Swan, Orchestra da Camera, Chameleon Arts Orchestra, Moscow City Ballet Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, English Pro Musica and the International Film Orchestra to name but a few, always in principal positions.
Alistair has performed with many top soloists including Nigel Kennedy, Peter Donohoe, John Lill and Katherine Jenkins. Alistair has also toured with “Phantom of the Opera”, and has performed with a large number of “pop” artists including Leo Sayer, Victoria Beckham, Wizard, Procul Harlem, and Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Alistair has made numerous recordings for film and television, including the soundtrack to The Krypton Factor for ITV. Solo engagements have included both Beethoven Romances with the English Philharmonic Orchestra, The Lark Ascending and The Seasons with Spires Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, and the Beethoven Triple Concerto.
Alistair is founder and artistic director of the Godiva Ensemble and Chairman of Orchestra da Camera. He plays on a Fagnola Violin from 1919.
In addition to performing, Alistair is ABRSM’s Regional Development Executive for England and Wales and is on the board of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.
In Memoriam: Colin Touchin
Founder
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In his worldwide career as a sought-after conductor, composer,clarinettist, recorder player, jury member and radio presenter,Colin Touchin combined the entire spectrum of musical activitiesin one person. Brought up in a musical family in Manchester,Colin took his degree in music at Keble College, Oxford. Hetaught clarinet and recorder, and later took a position atthe esteemed Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, wherehe taught for eight years.In 1989, he became Director of Music at the University of Warwick,where he worked for fourteen years. He conducted theaward-winning Warwick Chamber Choir and the National YouthWind Ensembles of Great Britain, Luxembourg and Hong Kong,and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble which gained Gold at theNational Concert Band Festival.After leaving the University of Warwick, his national and international work expanded. He established his own ensembles including our own Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus which he founded in 2005 in an unusual structure that brought together amateur instrumentalists and singers to put on new and demanding concerts with the support of professional musicians. In 2014 he became principal conductor of the Lufthansa Orchestra based in Frankfurt, to add to his international travels.Most recently, Colin and Alicia lived in Warsaw and in Hong Kong, where Colin worked as musical art director of the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, and as acclaimed guest conductor for the Tak-Ming Philharmonic Winds and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. He had a permanent spot on local radio RTHK's weekly show "In Touch with Music".He taught, conducted, examined and gave workshops for students and teachers in 22 countries in the last ten years, and was constantly in demand. His successful compositions and arrangements were also broadcast on the BBC (among others).The affection and respect in which he was held internationally, and his continued delight and excitement in making music, were all recognised and enjoyed by those who were fortunate enough to work with him. The news of his illness was alarming but, somehow, we expected his energy and positivity to see him through. It was not to be. That his Facebook page received over a thousand mourning notes as well as the national and international turn-out for his commemorative service last November at Holy Trinity Church in Coventry, his favourite church, were all indicators of how much he will continue to be missed.​