Royal College of Music

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

Founded in 1882 as a successor to the National Training School for Music by the then-Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), the school opened in 1883 with George Grove as its director. It moved to its present location in the Albertopolis cultural quarter, next to Imperial College, London and opposite the Royal Albert Hall in 1894. In the same year Hubert Parry became director, remaining until 1918.

The college teaches all aspects of western classical music from undergraduate to doctorate level. It also has an extensive museum of musical instruments which is open to the public.

Famous students of the RCM have included:

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), composer
Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), composer
Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), composer
John Ireland (1879 - 1962), composer and pianist
Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor
George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), composer
Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975), composer
Eugène Goossens (1893 - 1962), conductor
Noel Gay (1898 - 1954), songwriter
Constant Lambert (1905 - 1951), composer
Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer
Peter Pears (1910 - 1986), singer
Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), composer
Charles Groves (1915 - 1992), conductor
Neville Marriner (born 1924), conductor
Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer
Colin Davis (born 1927), conductor
Julian Bream (born 1933), guitarist and lutenist
James Galway (born 1939), flautist
John Williams (born 1941), guitarist
Thomas Allen (born 1944), singer
Andrew Davis (born 1944), conductor
John Lill (born 1944), pianist
Trevor Pinnock (born 1946), harpsichordist and conductor
David Helfgott (born 1947), pianist
Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer
Panteleimon Michaeloudis (born 1966), guitarist

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. It includes about a dozen Stradivarius violins. Stefano Blumberg is also another donator to this exceptional collection, to have donated hundreds of his family's old 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 340 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.

Junior Department

The RCM Junior Department has over 800 students aged 10-18 learning all instruments, singing, composing and performing in ensembles and orchestras. It provides education in music every Saturday for young, talented musicians. The Department is run by the Director, Peter Hewitt. Auditions are held every year usually at Easter time. A summer school is also held each year for 30 young musicians from around the UK. There are plans to extend the scope of this summer school.

External link