Alumni updates
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Our alumni continue to take the world by storm with their extraordinary achievements, from prestigious awards and performances to innovative outreach projects.
Awards, appointments and nominations
Congratulations to Sir Thomas Allen on receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gramophone Awards ceremony in October. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley was among the winners of the Gramophone Opera Award for Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer on Decca; the album Songs for Peter Pears featuring pianist Malcolm Martineau won the Song category; and baritone Huw Montague Rendall won the Voice & Ensemble award for his debut album, Contemplation.
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Composers in a Jukebox, a podcast formed by four alumni while they were still at the RCM, has won the Pop Con Award for Best Podcast. Screen composers Levent Altuntas, Jolene Khor, Luke Mombrea and Darren Sng started the podcast in 2022, and have recently collaborated with prestigious festivals like the London Soundtrack Festival to bring valuable conversations to the community, and a platform for composers to share insights. Featured guests include RCM alumni Alexandra Harwood, Nicholas Hooper and Christopher Tin, Composition for Screen professor Mike Ladouceur, and Eric Whitacre, RCM Creative Careers Centre Ambassador.
Trombonist Robyn Anderson was awarded Student of the Year at the British Trombone Society Awards.
Conductor Thomas Blunt has been appointed Principal Conductor of the Coro da Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, where he will spend at least ten weeks a year working with both the choir and orchestra.
Horn-player Jack Bradley-Buxton recently won a place with the Southbank Sinfonia.
Annest Davies was awarded the RCM Harp Prize in summer 2025, with current students Liza Rakovska and Dian Yi being highly commended.
Amadea Dazeley-Gaist was recently appointed as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s principal horn.
Soprano and cultural changemaker Gabriella Di Laccio was made Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in His Majesty The King’s Birthday Honours List 2025, for services to music and gender equality.
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Composer Helen Grime won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Orchestral Composition with Folk for soprano and orchestra, while Luke Mombrea won in the Best Small Chamber Composition category with Black Gold, and Anibal Vidal won in the Best Chamber Ensemble Composition category with Invocación n.2: A Kintsugi Resurrection. Richard Causton, Lisa Illean and Laurence Osborn were also nominated.
Trombonist Pau Hernández Santamaria was awarded the Yamaha Music Foundation Scholarship, and has recently performed with the Philharmonia, Birmingham Royal Ballet and BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Pianist and composer Brian Hughes’ piece The Twilight Turns, to poetry by James Joyce, was awarded Third Prize in the annual Sarah Leonard Song Writing Competition, and was premiered by tenor James Gilchrist at a concert in St Giles Cripplegate. The pianist was current RCM collaborative pianist Jorn Quirijnen.
Cellist Yuki Ito has been made a Larsen Strings Artist, joining an international roster of musicians. Larsen Strings is a world-famous manufacturer and exporter of strings.
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Three alumni have recently joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra: Co-Principal clarinet Adam Lee and cellists Jane Lindsay and Wallis Power.
Henry Newton, a trombone player in the Band of the Household Cavalry, has been awarded Household Division Musician of the Year 2025. This marks an historic moment, as Musician Newton is the first ever Household Cavalry Band Musician to receive this prestigious honour. Henry will perform on 12 December at Scarlet and Gold 2025, Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
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Percussionist Joe Richards became the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s principal percussionist in October.
Composer Darren Sng wrote the score for the film Orchids: Darwin’s Conundrum, which was recently nominated for a BAFTA in the student awards category for Best Documentary. The score was orchestrated by fellow alumnus Levent Altuntas. The film was screened at the prestigious Fox Studio Lot Darryl F. Zanuck Theater in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Yuanfan Yang reached the second stage of the prestigious International Chopin Competition.
Performances and recordings
Pianist and composer Rob Hao has recently released an album, Palimpsest, on the Divine Art label. The recording features solo piano works composed by Rob as well as two premiere recordings of pieces by RCM composition professor Alison Kay and by alumnus Michael Finnissy.
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Saxophonist Rianna Henriques’ recent performances include a spectacular night at the Royal Albert Hall with J Hus and Chineke!
Violinist Erin James (main image) launched her debut album, Fantasy Vignettes, in October. The album journeys through over 400 years of violin fantasies and tells their story visually through conceptual costumes designed and created by Erin.
Composer Hannah Kendall’s latest album, Shouting forever into the receiver, has been released on NMC Recordings to critical acclaim.
Tenor Laurence Kilsby recently performed in Britten’s Serenade at the Barbican with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson.
Violinist Lucilla Rose Mariotti’s debut album, Lumière du Temps, was released by Orchid Classics in October. Lucilla performed at the album launch on 24 November at the 1901 Arts Club. Lucilla has also had the honour of performing for RCM Patron, His Majesty King Charles III, and Her Majesty The Queen at Highgrove House during an event organised by the Italian Embassy in the UK, and has recently appeared live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.
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Pianist Charles Matthews performed alongside violist Louise Lansdown in a new release of South African Viola Music.
Composer Jorge Ramos wrote music for a new sound sculpture by visual artist Rosana Antolí, An Aria for the Mallard, which was exhibited in the South Garden of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Modern Art Centre in Lisbon between July and October. This reflection on the way people relate to our environment and ecological issues featured birdsong, field recordings and plant data, interwoven with live voice and synthesiser. Jorge also hosted a roundtable on the subject.
From South Kensington to South America: Sara Stowe’s baroque ensemble Galliarda has just finished its third Continuo Foundation funded tour of varied 17th-century Spanish Bolivian and Mexican music. Continuing the South American theme, Galliarda’s sister ensemble, Sirinu, has just issued its album The Frozen Jewel of Potosi on the Tremula label, following a 16th-century musical journey through the seasons in Spain and Bolivia and featuring the lute and hurdy-gurdy playing of alumnus Matthew Spring. This programme toured to Bolivia and Peru and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Pianist Oda Voltersvik’s latest release, Nordic Unrest, has been issued by LAWO Classics, with a launch concert taking place at St Mary’s Perivale in October.
Creative outreach
Violinist Esther Abrami joined the judging panel of Crescendo, a programme launched by the Southbank Centre and TikTok to select ten standout UK based creators for the Crescendo cohort. Other members of the panel include Baroness Thangam Debonnaire ARCM.
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Harpist Xenia Horne FRSA was invited to take part in the international Lullaby Project convening at Carnegie Hall and was awarded a bursary to fly to New York. This followed her creative education project with Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and she is in talks to deliver the Carnegie Hall project in the UK.
Violinist Sherry Shen has created a London-based music charity called the Sherry Music Academy, aiming to build a vibrant community of young musicians. The charity has a Youth Chamber Orchestra, with a yearly cycle of training workshops, masterclasses and performances, as well as summer camps at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Wycombe Abbey, and a volunteering programme bringing music into schools, care institutions and the wider community. A concert tour of Italy is planned for 2026. Alumni giving masterclasses for the charity include James Halsey, Leonid Kerbel, Gaby Lester, Susie Mészáros and Kathron Sturrock. With acknowledgements to Chris Garrick who taught Sherry jazz violin, the Sherry Jazz Ensemble performs regularly, creating career pathways for advanced students and young professional players.
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Send your updates for the spring 2026 digital edition of Upbeat to news@rcm.ac.uk by Friday 23 January 2026.
