AustLit

Musician, music director, composer

Fred Coppin began securing engagements as a music director in England in the early 1840s and likely came to Australia with his older brother George in late 1854. Their names have not been linked until December the following year, however, when Frederick is identified as music director/arranger for William Akhurst's Harlequin £.s.d. (Coppin's Olympic Theatre). Although his career in Australia was mostly associated with George, Frederick was involved in other business partnerships, including one with William Pitt (as co-owners of a panorama). To Melbournians, however, he was best known as the Theatre Royal's long-serving music director (1868-late 1870s).

[Source: Australian Variety Theatre Archive]