Accompanist

Colin Spinks

Colin Spinks is our accompanist both at weekly rehearsals and in many concerts. He is a highly accomplished pianist and organist and has joined us on choir tours to France, Germany and Belgium. He is a fine singer himself and entertained us wonderfully on our most recent trip to La Roche en Ardennes. He is also an unflappable conductor, as he recently proved when he was asked to stand in to direct a concert at the last minute!

Colin was born in Aylesbury and educated at Aylesbury Grammar School, studying organ with Stephen Armstrong in High Wycombe. He became Organ Scholar of Brasenose College Oxford in 1994. In 1998 he was appointed as the first post-Graduate Organ Scholar of Gloucester Cathedral, where he participated fully in the Cathedral’s daily Offices, training choristers and helping to form a new Youth Choir.

Since September 2017, Colin has been Director of Music at St Olave’s Hart Street in London and St Katherine Cree, regularly working with both amateur and professional musicians. Prior to this he held a similar position at St Mary le Strand in London and has also been involved in part time roles at St Dunstan in the West and St Albans Holborn. Colin enjoys working as a repetiteur for High Wycombe, Aylesbury and Barnet Choral Societies as well as for us. He has held similar positions with Marlow and Thame Choral Societies and Aylesbury Opera Group. He features as an organist on our CD, as well as those by Aylesbury Choral Society and vOx Chamber Choir from Oxford.

He is currently Musical Director of Wingrave Singers, a chamber choir with whom he frequently visits many of the UK’s great Cathedrals, and was Musical Director of Thame Choral Society from 2008-2012.

Colin is frequently in demand as an accompanist, regularly working with the London-based chamber choir Chantage and the Lloyd's Choir, and has performed with the Frideswide Ensemble (Oxford), Musica Donum Dei and the London Mozart Players. Colin was the founder conductor of the Langlais Festival in Brittany, France, and still participates in the Festival as a repetiteur and lecturer. He has also performed in the USA, Australia, Germany, Italy and Guernsey.

When ‘real-life’ was suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Colin continued to offer valuable support to NHGS through online rehearsals and the recording of learning tracks. We were so grateful that he stuck with us!


 
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