The Royal College of Music is one of the world's leading music institutions located in South Kensington, London.
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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 doctoral 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, see below.
Museum of Instruments
The College's Museum of Instruments, forming part of the Centre for Performance History, houses an internationally-renowned collection of over 800 instruments and accessories from circa 1480 to the present. Gifts since the foundation of the College in 1883 include important collections from the Rajah Sir Sorindro Mohun Tagore (1884), the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII (1886), Sir George Donaldson (1894), A.J. Hipkins (1911), E.A.K. Ridley (1968), Geoffrey Hartley (1985), Amaryllis Fleming (2002), Richard Walton (2003) and Crispian Steele-Perkins (2003). The collection was re-housed in a new museum in 1970. The Museum also has on display some of the most famous paintings from the College's collection, including two portraits of Jan Ladislav Dussek and George Henschel. The Museum is open to members of the public on Tuesdays to Fridays from 2.00pm to 4.30pm. During Christmas and Easter vacations the Museum is closed.
Other collections
Due partly to the vision of its founders, particularly Sir George Grove, the RCM holds research collections of international significance. This rich heritage includes a wealth of material dating from the fifteenth century onwards as well as autographs such as Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 64/1, Mozart’s Piano Concerto K491 and Elgar’s Cello Concerto. More extensive collections feature the music of Herbert Howells and Frank Bridge and film scores by Malcolm Arnold and Stanley Myers. Amongst over 300 original portraits are John Cawse’s 1826 painting of Weber (the last of the composer), Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1791) and Bartolommeo Nazari’s painting of Farinelli at the height of his fame. 10,000 prints and photographs comprise the most substantial archive of images of musicians in the UK. The RCM’s 600,000 concert programmes document concert life from 1730 to the present day.
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
- Clifford Benson (1946 - 2007), pianist
- 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
- Charles Daniels singer
- 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
- [Oda Slobodskaya] [188? - 1969], singer
- Cyril Smith (1909 - 1974), pianist
- Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor
- Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer
- Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer
- Nancy Tsuchiachi (born 1960), pianist and pedagogue
- 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
Also see the following Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music and Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music.
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