MARC ROCHESTER
The death of Marc Rochester was reported in
May 2022
Marc Rochester began his musical life in his native London as a chorister,
read music at the University of Wales in Cardiff, and his many music-related
occupations have included working as an operatic répétiteur, orchestral
horn player, organist (he was Organist and Master of the Choristers
at Derry Cathedral in Ireland, and Resident Organist of the Malaysian
Philharmonic Orchestra and Petronas Philharmonic Hall in Kuala Lumpur),
ethnomusicological researcher (studying the musical traditions of Wales
and the different tribal cultures of Borneo), music examiner and adjudicator,
peripatetic music teacher in rural Wales, and university lecturer in
Ulster, Malaysia, St Andrews and Middlesex. He is currently Senior Lecturer
in Music History and Criticism at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of
Music at the National University of Singapore.
Advised as an undergraduate that his academic wiring was too journalistic,
Marc responded by turning to music criticism. He began with the Western
Mail in Cardiff, eventually becoming senior arts’ correspondent, moved to
The Independent in London, for whom he was a regular critic for several
years, and is currently Music Critic with the Straits Times in Singapore.
He also wrote reviews of new music, recordings and live performances for
Organists’ Review and Musical Times, and in 1982 joined the reviewing panel
for Gramophone. He was also, before its sad demise, a regular contributor
to International Record Review. He has been writing for MusicWeb
International since 2016.
Outside a life which seems to be filled with music and writing, Marc has
one other consuming interest; driving buses and coaches. He financed his
postgraduate work by driving for a local coach company, and went on to
drive buses in Cardiff, Basingstoke, London and north Wales, spent several
years driving trans-continental coaches (which included every major
European city and resort as well as journeys into North Africa and West
Asia), and still today returns frequently to his house in rural Scotland
from his lecturing duties in Singapore, to drive for the local bus and
coach company.