FEATURE
HONOURING WOMEN ‘Fifty scholarships have been established, of which twenty-five confer a free education in music, and twenty-five provide, not only a free education, but also maintenance for the scholars. Of these scholarships, half are held by boys and half by girls.’ Extract from speech of HRH The Prince of Wales, at the opening of the Royal College of Music as reported in The Times, 8 May 1883.
Two women who can testify to the role the RCM has played in shaping and encouraging their careers in music are Helen Grime and Errollyn Wallen. Grime, who studied for her Master of Music at the College, and Wallen, a composition professor at the RCM, have both forged singular paths as composers of renown, and have been honoured with awards, high-profile performances of their work and, in January, an MBE and CBE (respectively) in The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
/RCMLondon Head to the RCM’s YouTube channel to hear Head of Postgraduate Programmes Dr Natasha Loges and student ensemble the Eumelia Trio talk about their experiences of studying and performing music by female composers, inspired by this year’s International Women’s Day events.
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UPBEAT SPRING 2020
From its inception, the RCM set out with a mandate of providing quality musical education, with an onus on ensuring access to all those with the talent and desire to learn. This has, from the College’s very first intake, deliberately included an equal number of young women and young men, and the RCM and the classical music scene have been benefitting ever since. Gender parity in the student body is a key facet of life at the College (female students made up 50% of the College according to the 2018–19 RCM Annual Review), and there have long been efforts to encourage performances of work by female composers. But women feeling represented and nurtured in classical music also means a cultural reckoning with how women experience support and encouragement from a young age, and how they see themselves playing a part in the broader history and direction of the musical profession. Creating ths supportive environment for young women is an integral part of what the RCM sets out to achieve.
Success, or even recognition, as a female composer is far from guaranteed: the Donne: Women in Music project, released in 2018, found that 97.6% of the music (classical and contemporary) performed in three seasons across Europe in 2018/19 was written by men. But Grime and Wallen have belied these figures in exciting ways: Wallen’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra was the first piece by a black woman ever performed at the BBC Proms, in 1998, and in 2016 Wigmore Hall hosted a day of performances of Grime’s music, in recognition of her role as the distinguished venue’s Composer in Residence for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons. For these sorts of opportunities to be available to women in classical music, there need to be places where talent and skill is nurtured, performance and commissioning opportunities offered and professional knowledge shared, so those venturing into the professional musical world can envision a successful future. The RCM knows the value of being one of those places. As well as standalone events such as the 2014 RCM Women in Music Festival, and the College’s annual roster of events for International Women’s Day, an environment of mentorship and collaboration at the RCM places emphasis on students feeling empowered to pursue careers in music. Grime agrees. When asked about being a composer in 21st-century Britain, she said that: ‘the musical landscape
