| Variations of Name | Richard Dennis Oliver Austin |
| Biography | Richard Austin FRCM was the chief conductor of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra from 1934 until 1940 and later a Professor of the Royal College of Music.
After his second 6-month stint in Munich, Austin became an assistant conductor for the Royal College opera class. He was assistant conductor and chorus master for a production of Mr Pepys at the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, and for other theatrical shows. Adrian Boult invited him to assist with an opera season in Bristol which Austin assumed the lead when Boult was obliged to go to Egypt, and was then asked to be conductor of the small professional Glen Pavilion orchestra in the city with whom he made his first broadcast on the BBC. In 1929, he became Conductor for three years with the Carl Rosa Opera Company touring throughout Great Britain, and then worked briefly with the short-lived Metropolitan Opera Company in 1933. While conducting an all-star production of The Golden Toy at the London Coliseum with Peggy Ashcroft, Wilfred Lawson, Nellie Wallace and Lupino Lane the following year, he saw an advertisement for the musical director of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra.
Chosen from a large number of applicants to succeed Sir Dan Godfrey, from 1934 to 1940 Austin was Musical Director of the Bournemouth Corporation, that is, he was the chief conductor of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra. He resigned from the Municipal Orchestra when Bournemouth Corporation cut the complement to only 24 players. During the Second World War he served as Music Advisor, Northern Command (19411945), ENSA. Following the war, he became a Professor of the Royal College of Music, from 1946 to 1976, and was also the college's Director of Opera from 1955 to 1976, when he retired. |