Brian Latchem

Brian Latchem (b 1948) is an English composer who was born in Bath and started to learn the piano at the age of 5. He comes from a musical family with both parents, grandparents and great grandparents playing a variety of musical instruments. He trained to be a music teacher and started his career in Felixstowe, where he taught Music and Drama to pupils aged 11 to 14. In 1972 he moved to a new school to become responsible for music, teaching children from 5 to 11.

Throughout his 32-year teaching career he was involved in many musical productions working with children and adults in the local community including “The Wizard of Oz” and “HMS Pinafore”. In 1974 he wrote a new cantata/musical “The World Tree” with a friend based on the Norse Legends of the Gods which has since become an established youth opera.

He was also Musical Director for an Operatic Society performing “A Sound of Music” and “Gigi”. For many years he was Assistant Musical Director of the Dorian Singers, a local amateur choir conducting works from the romantic era to the modern period.

Brian is a member of the English Concert Singers, a national choir, who have performed some of his music, particularly “We Praise Thee” in Salzburg in 2009 and “King Edgar”, a large choral work about the first King of All England who was crowned in Bath Abbey in 973. This used the form of coronation service we would recognise today. It was given a workshop performance a few years ago.

Towards the end of his career, he studied with the Open University from which he gained a Master of Arts degree followed by a Doctorate in Education in 2001.

Brian has spent most of his life composing and when he retired decided to transfer his handwritten manuscripts to the computer using “Sibelius”.

His choral work “An Abundance of Blessings” for SATB, Baritone and Harp has recently been performed several times by a local choir, the Gippeswyk Singers in which he sang the baritone solo.

During the pandemic Brian has been busy composing various pieces including a Wind Quintet, a collection of choral works entitled “Canticles” and a companion work to the “Suffolk Variations” called “Suffolk Variations 2 for Cello and Strings.”