The Woodwind Faculty and the wider RCM community foster a culture of nurturing students in a supportive environment. You are encouraged to grow into a confident and imaginative performer, taking advantage of all the opportunities available to you. 

Our outstanding team of woodwind professors combine careers as eminent performers with a passion and dedication for teaching, and many hold principal positions in major orchestras. In addition to one-to-one lessons, our students enjoy regular performance and ensemble classes, unlimited chamber coaching, orchestral playing and masterclasses with distinguished international musicians.

Performance opportunities

RCM students enjoy a wide variety of performance opportunities as part of the College’s diverse events calendar, which includes hundreds of events each year.

All woodwind students have the chance to play in our orchestras from first year, which include the RCM Philharmonic, the RCM Symphony Orchestra and the RCM Opera Orchestra. Here, students often have the opportunity to work with some of the finest conductors in the world. Recent visitors have included Martyn Brabbins, Joana Carneiro, Jessica Cottis, Sir Andrew Davis, Sakari Oramo, Sir Antonio Pappano and Vasily Petrenko.

Students have the chance to perform concertos with RCM orchestras, which have included RCM Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Holst’s The Planets at the 2024 BBC Proms and Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall.

The programming of our wind ensembles is eclectic and imaginative, covering many of the most exciting 21st-century works combined with icons of the Harmoniemusik repertoire. Our collaborations with other faculties and our visiting conductors extend the possibilities in instrumentation and experimentation. Each termly programme pushes the boundaries of wind playing and gives our students a voice through directing both rehearsals and concerts.

Woodwind students are encouraged to form your own ensembles, and can benefit from unlimited chamber coaching and various opportunities to perform in small groups, as part of the RCM’s Chamber Music concert series and in venues across London. We also have our own Wind Ensemble, which often commissions new works.

Chamber music is a huge part of RCM life and your musical development, with a large number of groups – from trios to octets – getting regular coaching. 
Students will be given frequent opportunities to perform at prestigious venues including Cadogan Hall, the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, the National Gallery and the Dome in Brighton.

We have sit-in schemes with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, BBC Symphony Orchestra and English National Opera Orchestra, all of which involve our students playing with these orchestras throughout the year, as well as being mentored by professional players. We also have a regular collaboration with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Through these schemes our students have been invited to work professionally with these orchestras.