New Zealand Order of Merit for Colin Hemmingsen

20 December 2016

Colin Hemmingsen has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music as part of the 2016 New Year Honours List.

Colin Hemmingsen has had a dual jazz/classical career for more than 30 years and until 1992 was New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s principal bassoonist.

He founded the New Zealand Jazz Foundation in 1983, and started New Zealand’s first tertiary jazz programme, which is now the Bachelor of Music in Jazz at Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music (NZSM).

Colin Hemmingsen retired from his position as Senior Lecturer at NZSM at the end of 2013. He continues to teach in the Jazz Programme as an Artist Teacher with specialities in reeds and improvisation.

We congratulate Colin for this well-deserved recognition of his contribution to music in New Zealand.