THE founder of the Minehead and Exmoor Festival, Tim Reynish, has been awarded the MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Tim galvanised the local arts scene by bringing top quality players to perform and was the festival’s arts director until 1970.

He was head of music at Minehead Grammar School between 1961 and 1965, co-principal of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1969 and lecturer in music at Bromsgrove College of Further Education until 1975, when he joined the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Tim’s tenure at the RNCM as head of conducting studies and head of wind and percussion resulted in the rejuvenation of the wind band genre with a multitude of concerts, commissions and recordings.

While holding down full-time day jobs, Tim continued his freelance conducting career with over 2,000 performances with youth, amateur and professional orchestras and ensembles, inspiring hundreds of future professional musicians including Dame Evelyn Glennie and Sir Simon Rattle.

After retiring from the RNCM, Tim continues to coach and conduct wind bands across the globe, mainly in America and the Far East and is currently in Spain rehearsing Union Musical Santa Cecilia de Villar del Arzobispo before conducting concerts in Japan and Spain later this summer.

In a prepared statement, he said: “In accepting this honour, I am extremely conscious of the enormous support I have had from my wife, family and the thousands of musicians of all ages who have played for me over the past 60 years – schoolchildren, students, amateurs and professionals including past and present staff and students of the Royal Northern College of Music.

“I am also grateful to the administrators of the orchestras and ensembles that I have conducted and the dozens of composers who have written works for me.

“It has been a wonderful voyage of discovery which has taken me on a global journey visiting many countries in Europe, North and South America, Australasia, the Middle East and the Far East. Many thanks to everybody who has helped me along the way, this recognition is as much for you and the music we play as it is for me.”

For more information about Tim Reynish go to http://www.timreynish.com/biography/