'Every student who comes here is an individual artist with their own perspective on life. I seek to allow you the space to be yourself as well as to perform at the highest international level.'
Strings
The Strings Faculty at the Royal College of Music is a supportive community of talented individuals excited by the study and practice of music. From dedicated world-class professors to extensive performance opportunities in recital, chamber groups, large-scale ensembles and orchestras, the faculty will broaden your horizons and support you in reaching your full potential as an artist.
We provide string players with an innovative programme of study combining instrumental training of the highest calibre with the skills needed to succeed as an artist. Students have regular opportunities to learn from internationally renowned visiting artists through public masterclasses and orchestral performances with some of the world’s finest conductors.
One-to-one lessons
One-to-one lessons are at the very heart of every RCM student’s learning experience. Our world-class professors, who are successful soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral players in their own right, have a proven record of leading students to success in competitions and in the profession.
Additionally our visiting professors include some of today's greatest artists including Maxim Vengerov (Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin), Pinchas Zuckerman, Nicola Benedetti, Alina Ibragimova, Torleif Thedéen, Paul Ellison, Maris Robles and John Williams.
Chamber music is a key part of your musical experience and RCM groups can receive unlimited chamber coaching from any professor. There are numerous performance opportunities (both internal and external), festivals, collaborations and competitions for RCM chamber ensembles. Students also benefit from the expertise of our Ensemble in Association, the Sacconi Quartet and our Quartet in Residence, the Harlem Quartet.
For students who want to develop skills in specialist areas, we offer additional tuition in jazz violin within the Strings Faculty, while lessons on period instruments are available through the Historical Performance Faculty.
We also offer an surgery run by our resident luthier, who provides maintenance and repairs, together with rehair facilities and practical advice.
'The RCM has helped me reach many of my goals by providing a lens on the different corners of the musical world.'
Guitar ensemble rehearsal
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Double Bass Festival
Masterclass with Maxim Vengerov, Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin
Performing at the Royal Academy of Art
Chamber coaching from visiting artist Thomas Zehetmair
One-to-one lesson with Head of Strings Mark Messenger
Chamber coaching from visiting artist Pinchas Zuckerman
Nicola Benedetti performing and working with RCM students
Performance opportunities
Students enjoy many opportunities to perform as part of a chamber group, both as part of the RCM’s chamber music concert series and at venues across London. Violinists, violists and cellists are able to work with professional accompanists to help develop their duo skills. In addition, we provide specially tailored ensemble opportunities for double bass, harp and guitar students.
Our students are offered as much orchestral experience as possible. A vibrant orchestral life exists across multiple ensembles, including the RCM Philharmonic, RCM Symphony Orchestra and RCM Opera Orchestra, plus many other smaller groups. We have benefitted from world class visiting conductors including the late Bernard Haitink, Holly Mathieson, Sir Antonio Pappano, Vladimir Ashkenazy, John Wilson and Vladmir Jurowski. Recent student performances have included the Brahms Double Concerto, Bottesini’s Double Bass Concerto, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat, Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane, Dutilleux’s Sur la Même Accord, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Korngold’s Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no 2, Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto and On Opened Ground by Mark-Anthony Turnage, the RCM Research Fellow for Composition.
Harpist in an orchestral rehearsal
A violin section enjoys a short break
Visiting conductor Vladimir Jurowski in rehearsal
Lower strings in an orchestral rehearsal
Visiting conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy in rehearsal
Double bass section rehearsing at the Royal Festival Hall
Visiting conductor John Wilson in rehearsal
Our students enjoy regular masterclasses with high-profile visitors including:
- Nicola Benedetti
- Paul Ellison
- Alina Ibragimova
- Maxim Rysanov
- Torleif Thedéen
- Maxim Vengerov (Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin)
- John Williams
Quartets
- Belcea Quartet
- Chilingirian Quartet
- Sacconi Quartet
Violin
- Hugh Bean
- Levon Chilingirian
- Andrew Haveron
- Daniel Hope
- Alina Ibragimova
- Sir Neville Marriner
- Peter Oundjian
- Sasha Rozhdestvensky
- Vasko Vassilev
- Tamsin Waley-Cohen
Viola
- Cecil Aronowitz
- Roger Chase
- Simon Rowland-Jones
- Christopher Wellington
Cello
- Natalie Clein
- Eileen Croxford
- Joan Dickson
- Amaryllis Fleming
- Julian Lloyd Webber
- Anna Shuttleworth
Guitar
- Julian Bream
- John Williams
Harp
- Claire Jones
- Rachel Masters
The RCM’s Creative Careers Centre, which is recognised internationally for its innovative approach to supporting young musicians, provides an unparalleled service to current students and recent alumni. The dedicated team partners with leading consultants, reputable arts organisations and local communities, delivering unique career-building opportunities and a direct route to the music industry.
The work of the Creative Careers Centre allows students to discover their professional identity, gain hands-on experience and new skills, develop an entrepreneurial mind-set and build a fulfilling professional portfolio.
Extensive performance and teaching opportunities are available, as well as valuable guidance on CV and biography writing, concert programming, communication skills, project management, marketing and publicity, online promotion, financial matters and how to develop a business idea.
The Royal College of Music is proud to offer its students fantastic practice and performance facilities with resources to support teaching and learning. We continually improve our facilities to ensure RCM students have the best opportunities.
Explore our facilities with a video tour of the RCM
Key facilities at the RCM include:
- The Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall - our primary performance venue for orchestras and large ensembles.
- Our 400-seat Britten Theatre, home to the RCM’s thriving International Opera School.
- A new Performance Hall, offering an alternative space for ensembles, with a retractable stage, Fazioli grand piano and variable acoustics.
- Intimate spaces for solo and chamber performance in our Performance Studio and Parry Rooms.
- Sound-proofed Amadeus Music Pods for private practice.
- A purpose-built percussion suite – you can watch a video tour on YouTube.
- Over 160 pianos, including 60 grand pianos and 20 early keyboards, as well as organ rooms.
- A Blüthner Practice Suite which holds ten Blüthner Model A upright pianos.
- Instrument surgeries including luthier services.
- RCM Studios: a commercial-grade facility, enabling live broadcasts around the world.
- Digital Innovation Lab: a state of the art recording and mixing suite.
- RCM Library with more than 200,000 scores, books and recordings in its lending collection, as well as access to more than 400 music journals.
- Recently refurbished RCM Museum, holding more than 14,000 instruments, portraits and images, as well as a climate-controlled performance space and dedicated research facility.
The RCM is custodian to a highly important collection of string instruments and bows that include some of the finest examples of Italian, French and English makers. The collection is maintained and expertly restored by RCM Luthier and world-renowned authority on fine violins Florian Leonhard Fine Violins.
Florian Leonhard, RCM Luthier:
'The RCM collection is an important and fascinating part of the institution's history, ever evolving through the bequests of generous affiliates of the College. This large collection comprises superb examples including not only many of the leading Italian makers, such as Guadagnini, Goffriller and Gagliano, but also French makers such as Vuillaume, and English luthiers such as Benjamin Banks and Richard Duke.
Such instruments require regular check-ups with luthiers at the highest level, in order to maintain the attributes for which these irreplaceable antiques are so famous: sonority, brilliance, clarity, depth, easy response and sound projection.
The benefit from the loan of these instruments, which become their ‘voice’ for a formative period of their education, is simply invaluable to students: a fine instrument will not only encourage, but actually enable its custodians to unlock their full technical and musical potential.'
Highlights of the Collection
Violin, Nicolò Gagliano (1740–1787)
Irene Gertrude Swann bequeathed her Gagliano violin to the RCM in 1990. She attended St Paul’s Girl’s School in Hammersmith and played this violin in the world premiere of Holst’s St Paul’s Suite. Irene was a devoted assistant of Holst's and remembered him as being a ‘kind teacher who was full of encouragement’. She was married to Herbert Swann and step-mother to Donald Swann of the famous Flanders and Swann duo. Nicolò Gagliano’s instruments are the most sought after of the Gagliano family.
Cello, John Betts (1752–1823)
Ina Boyle bequeathed her Betts cello to the RCM in 1967. Ina was the most prolific and significant female composer from Ireland before 1950. Her oeuvre included vocal, choral, chamber and orchestral music. In 1923, Ina travelled to the UK to begin lessons with Ralph Vaughan Williams, then a teacher at the RCM. John Betts was apprenticed in 1765 to Richard Duke, another successful British luthier of the time. Betts went on to employ many eminent makers including Vincenzo Panormo, Joseph and Henry Lockey Hill.
Violin masterclass
Nicola Benedetti
Benedetti works with Johannes Marmen on Brahms' Sonata no 1 in G major op 78
Courses available
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Master of Music in Performance, MMus(Perf)
Artist Diploma in Performance, ArtDip
Fellowships available
Mills Williams Junior Fellowship
Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship
Please note that the audition and application process for Fellowships is not the same as it is for our courses. Please refer to the individual Fellowship pages for more details.
Royal College of Music presents inspiring autumn events season
The RCM announces a diverse range of concerts, talks and events including a series of performances inspired by nature this autumn.
Royal College of Music ranked global number one for performing arts
The Royal College of Music has been ranked as the global top institution for performing arts in the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject.
Royal College of Music announces 2022 Summer season
The Royal College of Music (RCM) is pleased to present a vibrant summer events programme featuring festivals, classical concerts and innovative collaborations.
Royal College of Music partners with the Stauffer Center for Strings
The Royal College of Music (RCM) today announces a new artistic and educational partnership with the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona, Italy.
The RCM String Band will perform a brand new work composed by RCM graduate Laura Ayoub and her sister Sarah.
Sakari Oramo conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich
13 October 2022, 7:30pm
Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall
Contact the Strings Faculty
If you have any general queries about strings at the RCM please contact our Strings Faculty Administration team. If you have any queries about auditions or the admissions process, please contact our Admissions team.
Strings Faculty Administration
General enquiries about the operation of the faculty and consultation lessons
Royal College of Music
Prince Consort Road
London SW7 2BS
United Kingdom
