Highlights

Winners of the Isolde Menges Prize and the RCM Cello Prize.

Part of a brand new series showcasing winners of the RCM’s major prizes in a number of solo recitals. See also Friday 24 September, Tuesday 28 September and Thursday 30 September.

Winners of the Anna Shuttleworth Prize for the best performance of an unaccompanied work for cello and the RCM Guitar Competition.

Part of a brand new series showcasing winners of the RCM's major prizes in a number of solo recitals. See also Thursday 23 September, Tuesday 28 September and Thursday 30 September.

When they’re not training our students, our professors are out and about performing on the world’s most prestigious concert platforms. Now we’re delighted to have persuaded them to perform here at the RCM in this new series which offers the chance to hear some of the best-loved works in the chamber music repertoire.

See also Thursday 7 October and Tuesday 12 October.

Winner of the RCM's Ian Stoutzker Prize.

Part of a brand new series showcasing winners of the RCM's major prizes in a number of solo recitals. See also Thursday 23 September, Friday 24 September and Thursday 30 September.

The concert opens by throwing the spotlight on a winner of the RCM Concerto Competition. Virtuoso bassoonist Lois Au shows off the instrument’s lyrical qualities in Elgar’s Romance. This is followed by an orchestral interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet.

Winners of the RCM Woodwind Ensemble Prize and Double Bass Prize.

The final part of a brand new series showcasing winners of the RCM's major prizes in a number of solo recitals.

When they're not training our students, our professors are out and about performing on the world's most prestigious concert platforms. Now we're delighted to have persuaded them to perform here at the RCM in this new series which offers the chance to hear some of the best-loved works in the chamber music repertoire.

See also Monday 27 September and Tuesday 12 October.

Sponsored by The Ratcliffe Trust

When they're not training our students, our professors are out and about performing on the world's most prestigious concert platforms.

Supported by Vernon and Hazel Ellis

Chamber Music Centre Stage is the RCM’s prestigious chamber music showcase series, giving some of our very best per formers the chance to shine in the stunning surroundings of our Britten Theatre.

Recent reviews of the RCM Symphony Orchestra have been comparing it favourably to London’s leading professional orchestras, and Martin André’s most recent appearance with the RCM Symphony Orchestra and Chorus was described as “awe-inspiring” and a “triumph”. So excitement is already building for André’s return to conduct one of the great works in the repertoire. He will be joined onstage by a full chorus and outstanding singers from the RCM International Opera School, for the final movement and Beethoven’s famous “Ode to Joy”.

The piece is perfectly complemented by Stravinsky’s short neoclassical Symphony in three movements, the first piece written by Stravinsky in the US, and his response to the Second World War.

Professor Amanda Glauert discusses Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 in advance of the evening's performance by the RCM Chorus and Symphony Orchestra.

Recent reviews of the RCM Symphony Orchestra have been comparing it favourably to London’s leading professional orchestras, and Martin André’s most recent appearance with the RCM Symphony Orchestra and Chorus was described as “awe-inspiring” and a “triumph”. So excitement is already building for André’s return to conduct one of the great works in the repertoire. He will be joined onstage by a full chorus and outstanding singers from the RCM International Opera School, for the final movement and Beethoven’s famous “Ode to Joy”.

The piece is perfectly complemented by Stravinsky’s short neoclassical Symphony in three movements, the first piece written by Stravinsky in the US, and his response to the Second World War.

This concert opens by throwing the spotlight on a winner of the RCM Concerto Competition. Joo Yeon Sir performs the entrancing Violin Concerto by Delius.This work is followed by an orchestral interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet with the central Love Scene that Berlioz himself declared to be the finest piece he ever wrote.

Katy Hamilton introduces Brahms’s Symphony no 1 before its performance by the RCM Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

This unmissable concert promises to be one of the highlights of the London calendar.

We are thrilled to be welcoming once again regular visitor Vladimir Ashkenazy, one of the world’s great conductors. He will be directing the RCM Symphony Orchestra in Brahms’s sublime Symphony no 1, the majestic masterpiece that came about after twenty years of hard struggle to come to terms with the symphonic legacy of Beethoven.

And if that’s not enough, Ashkenazy will also be conducting brilliant per former Sofya Gulyak, winner of the 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition, in the equally famous Piano Concerto by Brahms’s contemporary Robert Schumann. We would recommend getting your tickets early!

The RCM is grateful to the Royal Garden Hotel for their generous support of the RCM's visiting International Conductors Programme.

Mark Messenger’s RCM String Band concerts are fast building a reputation for their fresh and exuberant interpretations of classical masterworks.

The latest works under the spotlight are Mendelssohn’s dance-like ‘Italian’ Symphony and almost its polar opposite: Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, lamenting the victims of the Dresden bombing, and reflecting the suffering of the Russian people under Stalin.

A special concert for Warlock’s 116th birthday featuring music for choir and brass with arrangements by Eric Crees.

International performing legend and acclaimed teacher Johannes Goritzki marks the beginning of his new residency at the RCM with this eagerly awaited visit.

Featuring music from Duke Ellington to Maria Schneider, as well as original compositions by director Mark Armstrong.

Part of the London Jazz Festival

A lecture presentation and flute masterclass by Rachel Brown, an authority on historical performance practice, to launch the first ever publication of virtuosic sonatas composed by J J Quantz for the sole use of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.

This concert features some of the most celebrated works of the past fifty years – exuberantly witty chamber symphonies and concertos by today’s leading composers, taking in a range of influences from Beethoven 9 to “Daisy, Daisy”.

Following her release of Private Passion - Quantz sonatas composed for Frederick the Great, flautist Rachel Brown, best known for her moving and virtuosic performances on a wide range of flutes and recorders, performs these previously unpublished works on period instruments.

The Historical Performance department at the Royal College of Music is delighted to announce details for the 4th International Festival of Viols. This year’s two-day festival features the wonderful Kessler English viols from the 17th century.

Supported by Linda Hill

Part of the International Festival of Viols

Lectures by Richard Boothby and Dr Lucy Robinson

Part of the International Festival of Viols

A special solo recital by Jordi Savall

Part of the International Festival of Viols

Your chance to hear two classics of the wind ensemble repertoire, the elegant world of Gounod contrasting strikingly with the earthy, Bohemian Dvorák. Separating the two are intriguing world premières from Mark Armstrong, Director of RCM Big Band and Nimrod Katzir, a composition student. Varied, provocative and compelling sound worlds are guaranteed in this programme!

The latest concert in our cutting-edge From the Soundhouse series includes two pieces by cello and electronics duo Partial Gathering,and Philip Glass’s early seminal work Music With Changing Parts for mixed ensemble.

The first opportunity this year to hear a selection of the best of the JD Chamber Music groups.

Come and help us celebrate the 150th birthday of the cancan!

Jacques Offenbach’s first full-length operetta – a gloriously entertaining blend of irreverent grand opera parody and vicious social satire – was already a big hit when it opened in Paris in 1858. But when two years later he added the notorious “galop” (better known as the cancan) for a revival in Vienna, he created an international sensation that ran on Broadway and in the West End, and has been delighting audiences worldwide ever since.

For further details visit our Opera page

Visit our Opera page for further details.

Visit our Opera page for further details.

Visit our Opera page for further details.

This concert features two RCM Concerto Competition winners: percussionist Serge Vuille and Finnish composer Lauri Supponen, whose short work Ancylis forms part of the programme.

Peter Eötvös’s percussion concerto Triangle is a work in which “the soloist is a leader, a master drummer of the African type, and the other instruments are the ‘choir’ that reacts and answers”. Many choices are made by the percussionist himself while the piece unfolds, making every per formance a unique and thrilling experience. If you don’t believe that virtuoso triangle-playing is possible, this is the piece to make you think again!

Rounding up the programme is the monumental tenth symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. The precise date of its completion is unclear but it was given its first per formance by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra on 17 December 1953, following the death of Stalin in March that year.

Programme to include performances by the Junior Department's choirs, Brass Dectet, Clarinet Choir and Sinfonia.