ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC

The 'Royal College of Music' is a prestigious music school located in Kensington, London.

Contents

Origins

Curriculum

Museum of instruments

Other collections

Famous alumni

Notes

Origins

The college building was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield.
The Royal College of Music is situated in London's South Kensington, next to Imperial College , directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall, near the Royal College of Art and five minutes' walk from the Science, Natural History and Victoria and Albert Museums - possibly the capital's most important artistic, scientific and cultural melting pot.
Since its foundation in 1882 by the Prince of Wales, later Edward Vll, the College has been linked with the Royal family. Its patron is currently Her Majesty The Queen. For 40 years, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was President; in 1993 HRH The Prince of Wales became President, Her Majesty The Queen Mother becoming President Emerita.
The College's influence on the development of music in the last 100 years is incalculable. Through its doors have passed some of the most distinguished and influential figures in British music history.
The current director is the clarinettist and scholar Dr Colin Lawson.^[1][2]

Curriculum

The college teaches all aspects of western classical music from undergraduate to doctorate level. There is a Junior Department, where 300 children aged 8 to 18 are educated on Saturdays. It also has an extensive museum of musical instruments which is open to the public.

Museum of instruments

The College's Museum of Instruments has a collection of 800 items, mainly Western, but including some from Africa and Asia. It is housed in purpose built premises dating from 1970 and is open to the public two afternoons a week. Stefano Blumberg, Jake Howarth and Tim Lambourne are also donors to this exceptional collection, having contributed hundreds of examples of their families' old sheet music.

Other collections

The College's loan and reference collections number several hundred thousand items. There are numerous manuscripts including some by composers such as Mozart and Haydn, and many letters, including a substantial Beethoven collection. There are tens of thousands of pieces of early printed music. The modern printed music is available for hire when not needed by the College. There are also thousands of recordings, and an extensive library, including sets of several hundred music journals.
The Department of Portraits and Performance History has a collections of 3,400 original portraits and 10,000 prints and photographs; a collection of 600,000 concert programmes from 1720 to the present day; and extensive holdings relating to opera, instrument, title-page and concert hall design.

Famous alumni

Famous students of the RCM have included:

★ Thomas Allen (born 1944), singer

★ Julian Anderson (born 1967), composer

★ Malcolm Arnold (1921 - 2006), composer

★ John S. Beckett (1927 - 2007), composer, performer and conductor

★ Luke Bedford (born 1978), composer

★ John Birch (born 1929), organist

★ Robin Blaze - countertenor

★ Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975), composer

★ Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), composer

★ Julian Bream (born 1933), guitarist and lutenist

★ Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), composer

★ George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), composer

★ Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), composer

★ Thurston Dart (1921 - 1971), performer and musicologist

★ Andrew Davis (born 1944), conductor

★ Colin Davis (born 1927), conductor

★ David Fanshawe (born 1942), composer and ethnomusicologist

★ Alan Fleming-Baird (born 1972), composer

★ James Galway (born 1939), flautist

★ Noel Gay (1898 - 1954), songwriter

★ Daniel Giorgetti, composer

★ Robert John Godfrey (born 1947), composer & pianist

★ Eugène Goossens (1893 - 1962), conductor

★ Charles Groves (1915 - 1992), conductor

★ David Helfgott (born 1947), pianist

★ Kenneth Hesketh (born 1968), composer

★ Peter Hill, pianist

★ Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), composer

★ James Horner (born 1953), composer

★ Herbert Howells (1892-1983), composer

★ John Ireland (1879 - 1962), composer and pianist

★ Dame Gwyneth Jones (born 1936), Wagnerian soprano

★ Thea King (1925-2007), clarinetist

★ Constant Lambert (1905 - 1951), composer and critic

★ John Lill (born 1944), pianist

★ Neville Marriner (born 1924), conductor

★ Francis Monkman (born 1949), rock, classical and film score composer

★ Steve Nieve (born 1958), keyboardist

★ Peter Pears (1910 - 1986), singer

★ Mica Penniman (aka Mika) (born 1983), pop rock musician and songwriter

★ Trevor Pinnock (born 1946), harpsichordist and conductor

★ Stephen Savage, pianist

★ Cyril Smith (1909 - 1974), pianist

★ Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor

★ Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer

★ Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer

★ Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 1960), composer

★ Rick Wakeman (born 1949), keyboardist

★ Fanny Waterman (born 1920), founder, chairman and artistic director of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition

★ Darryl Way (born 1948), rock and classical musician

★ Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer

★ Julian Lloyd Webber (born 1951), cellist

★ William Lloyd Webber (1914 - 1982), composer

★ Gillian Weir (born 1941), internationally-renowned organist

★ John Williams (born 1941), guitarist

★ Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), composer

★ Nancy Tsuchiachi (born 1960), pianist and pedagouge

Notes

1. Official site
2. Architectural history and description from the ''Survey of London''