Timothy Reynish

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Timothy John Reynish, born 1938 in Axbridge, is a British conductor known for wind bands and wind ensembles. He helped expand wind music through performances, new commissions, and editions, and has long been connected with the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).

Reynish studied at St Edmund's School, Canterbury. He played the horn, studying with Aubrey Brain and Frank Probyn, and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra for six years. He studied music at Cambridge with Raymond Leppard and Sir David Willcocks.

His career began teaching at Minehead Grammar School (1961–1965). He was horn co-principal of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1965–1969). He also played principal horn with Northern Sinfonia and Sadler's Wells Opera, and helped start the Birmingham Sinfonietta from CBSO players. From 1969 to 1975 he was a lecturer at Bromsgrove College of Further Education.

In 1975 he joined RNCM as a tutor. In 1977 he became head of the School of Wind & Percussion, a position he held until 2001. He built the RNCM wind orchestra and ensembles and commissioned new works from composers including Richard Rodney Bennett, John Casken, Adam Gorb, Kenneth Hesketh, Thea Musgrave and Aulis Sallinen. He also conducted many RNCM opera productions.

Since 2001 he has continued to work as a lecturer and conductor in the UK and the USA. He founded the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles in 1981. He edited the Novello Wind Band & Ensemble series and worked with Maecenas Music. He contributed a chapter on Percy Grainger to The New Percy Grainger Companion.

In 2022 he self-published Making it Better: Creating a Wind Repertoire in the UK, about his commissions. He was awarded an MBE in 2019 for services to music.