Welcome to our Summer Season, featuring a wide range of events from our talented students and inspiring visiting artists.
Orchestral masterpieces
Stravinsky’s flamboyant ballet Petrushka is conducted by our Prince Consort Professor of Conducting, Martyn Brabbins, alongside Prokofiev’s highly virtuosic Second Piano Concerto. Conductor Ryan Bancroft also returns to conduct the RCM Symphony Orchestra at London’s Southbank Centre, leading two masterpieces from either end of the 20th century. These works – Debussy’s La mer and John Adams' Harmonielehre – took visions of the sea as their inspiration and appear alongside Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers. The RCM Philharmonic performs a rare piece by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Toussaint l’Ouverture, describing the life of the ‘Father of Haiti’ and revolutionary leader, alongside Tchaikovsky and Elgar.
Opera
Our opera singers present Barnum’s Bird by Libby Larsen, directed by Ella Marchment, which tells the incredible story of Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’, and her extraordinary success touring America with the great showman, PT Barnum. Jenny Lind was later central to the creation of the vocal department here at the Royal College of Music when the College was founded in 1882.
Festivals and more
There is further variety with our annual Composition for Screen Showcase, the Festival of Percussion featuring Jojo Mayer – culminating in a performance by the RCM Jazz Orchestra led by Peter Long – and John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, presented in collaboration with the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen. FestivALL, our student-curated celebration of composers from underrepresented backgrounds, also returns as part of this year’s Great Exhibition Road Festival. This two-day street festival brings together neighbouring institutions in South Kensington in a vibrant celebration.
Something for everyone
Drop in, too, to enjoy regular chamber music concerts and organ recitals in one of our beautiful performance spaces, both intimate and large-scale. With our annual Super String Sunday celebration, spectacular concerts by brass and wind ensembles, masterclasses from Maxim Vengerov, Angela Gheorghiu, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and more, inspiring performances from our Junior Department musicians, and a special Messiaen performance at Wigmore Hall, there is something for everyone to enjoy in this Summer Season.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Royal College of Music.
