UPBEAT SUMMER 2018 NEWS FROM INSIDE THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC
IN THIS ISSUE THE PASTON TREASURE: A MUSICAL PUZZLE I WAS GLAD: CELEBRATING SIR HUBERT PARRY
UPBEAT SUMMER 2018
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HIGHLIGHTS
RCM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
In February the RCM was delighted to welcome back world-renowned conductor Bernard Haitink to lead the RCM Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss’ magnificent tone poem, An Alpine Symphony, and Mozart’s Piano Concerto no 24.
Photos: Nick Rutter Front cover: Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
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In this special issue of celebration and commemoration, we mark some of the major musical anniversaries taking place in 2018 and celebrate some of the figures, both past and present, that have helped shape the Royal College of Music. Our spring term ended with two causes to celebrate. In March, the RCM topped the World University Rankings table in the UK for the third consecutive year. That same month we also welcomed back HRH The Prince of Wales for his annual visit, which marked his 25th year as President of the RCM. This issue we also honour an important figure from RCM history. October is the anniversary of former RCM Director Sir Hubert Parry and on page ten, we take a look at the events taking place across the College to commemorate his centenary year. Find out how the prolific professor and composer influenced not only the English choral tradition, but also the cultural life of the RCM itself. Next, we celebrate ten years of giving with Ruth and Michael West on page 12. From Glyndebourne to the Mariinsky Theatre, they share a lifetime of musical memories and explain what being an RCM supporter means to them. Finally, in a year packed full of anniversaries, we also celebrate some firsts with new research finds from both the Centre for Performance Science and the RCM Museum, and a new partnership with the Central Music School in Moscow. And last but not least, turn to page nine to find out more about this issue’s cover image and how a puzzling 17th-century oil painting led to a very unique recording in the RCM Studios. You can tell us about your own recent projects and achievements by emailing news@rcm.ac.uk. The deadline for the summer issue of Upbeat is Monday 24 September 2018.
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NEWS
The latest news and activities from the Royal College of Music
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CONTENTS
WELCOME TO UPBEAT
THE PASTON TREASURE: A MUSICAL PUZZLE
Discover a musical secret that’s been hiding on canvas for over 300 years
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I WAS GLAD: THE LEGACY OF SIR HUBERT PARRY Upbeat honours the late composer, historian and RCM Director
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A LIFETIME OF MUSICAL MEMORIES: RUTH AND MICHAEL WEST
This music-loving couple have supported RCM musicians for the last 10 years – find out what keeps them coming back
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SUPPORT US
STUDENT UPDATES
STAFF UPDATES
Professor Colin Lawson CBE FRCM, Director
UPBEAT ONLINE
ALUMNI UPDATES
IN MEMORY
Upbeat is available to read online at www.rcm.ac.uk/upbeat. Please help us to reduce our carbon footprint and receive Upbeat by email. Director of Communications Talia Hull Editor Kathryn Lamont Designer May Yan Man Design www.splashofpaint.com Contact news@rcm.ac.uk
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IN THE NEWS Below HRH The Prince of Wales with those honoured at the RCM’s award ceremony in March Opposite The MedTech SuperConnector research programme
TOPPING THE TABLES FOR THIRD CONSECUTIVE YEAR
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he Royal College of Music has been named the top institution for Performing Arts in the United Kingdom and Europe and second in the world in the 2018 QS World University Rankings. The prestigious league table measures the strength and quality of teaching and places the RCM above all other UK institutions for the third year running. Each institution’s research activities, graduate employability and international profile are also measured. The rankings are compiled from the opinions of academics and employers and from analysis of research output and impact. In 2017 the Royal College of Music was rated gold for its outstanding teaching and learning provision for undergraduates in the first ever Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The RCM was also placed as the top UK specialist institution for music in the 2017 Complete University Guide.
HRH MARKS 25 YEARS AS RCM PRESIDENT
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RH The Prince of Wales marked 25 years as President of the Royal College of Music when he made his annual visit to the College on 14 March. In 25 years as President, HRH The Prince of Wales has honoured some of the music industry’s most eminent figures. Internationally renowned performers Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Lang Lang have received Honorary Doctorates, along with composers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steve Reich. Violinist Nicola Benedetti, conductor John Wilson and songwriter and keyboardist Rick Wakeman have all been honoured with Fellowships. During this year’s ceremony, HRH The Prince of Wales honoured some of those who have made important contributions to music. Celebrated pianist Sir András Schiff, who has given several masterclasses at the RCM in recent years, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. Nicholas McCarthy, who has enjoyed a flourishing career since becoming the first one-handed pianist to graduate from the RCM in 2012, was made an HonRCM. Pioneering genetic scientist Professor Lord Winston was also made a Fellow of the RCM (FRCM) while one of UK radio’s most beloved personalities, Sean Rafferty MBE, was made an HonRCM. Victoria, Lady Robey OBE, founder of the charity London Music Masters and member of the RCM Council from 2007 to 2017, was also honoured. The ceremony featured performances from award winners and exceptional recent graduates including recorder player and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rose Bowl recipient Katie Cowling, bass-baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and violist Bryony GibsonCornish, both recipients of prestigious Tagore Gold Medals. Composer and pianist Eduardo Andrade was the recipient of the President’s Award.
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RCM TALENT TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT THE BBC PROMS
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he BBC Proms returns this summer, showcasing talent from the RCM’s legacy of celebrated alumni. Hear much-loved pieces from great composers like Britten and Parry, as well as performances from rising RCM stars. A highlight of this year’s Proms is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the BBC Young Musician competition, which sees an array of previous winners and finalists taking to the stage on 15 July, including Ben Goldscheider, Laura van der Heijden, Jennifer Pike, Michael Collins, Lara Melda, Natalie Clein and Martin James Bartlett. RCM alumna Louise Alder performs the title role in Handel’s Theodora on 7 September. Since graduating in 2013, Louise has won many prestigious awards, including Young Singer of the Year in the International Opera Awards 2017 and the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2017. Louise was also shortlisted for the Young Artist Award at the 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. Alumnus conductor and Proms veteran John Wilson leads Bernstein’s West Side Story on 11 August while soprano Sophie Bevan, who graduated from the RCM in 2007, performs a programme of Lili Boulanger, Elgar and Vaughan Williams on 12 August. Baritone Gerald Finley, an RCM alumnus who has led many masterclasses at the College, takes part in the Last Night of the Proms on 8 September. Many RCM professors star in this year’s Proms too, including RCM Research Fellow in Composition, Dr Mark-Anthony Turnage. The world premiere of his new composition, Farewell, is performed on 6 August by RCM alumna Dame Sarah Connolly, alongside works by illustrious RCM composers Stanford, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Holst and Britten. Brindley Sherratt, Visiting Professor of Vocal Studies, performs on 17 July and Visiting Professor of Conducting, Martyn Brabbins performs an all-RCM alumnus programme on 27 July. Meanwhile Dr Natasha Loges, Head of Postgraduate Programmes, gives an introduction to Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony in a Proms Plus Talk on 16 July.
£5M FOR NEW COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
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he Royal College of Music is collaborating with Imperial College on an ambitious new project that has received £5m government funding. MedTech SuperConnector (MTSC) is a multi-university research programme which aims to translate new medical technologies into working clinical solutions. The recent investment from Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund will support the project, which challenges early career researchers to turn their discoveries into new diagnostic tools, medical devices and digital healthcare solutions. Imperial College is working with seven partner institutions to develop the MTSC, including the Centre for Performance Science (CPS). RCM researchers will be providing pitch and presentation training for researchers on the programme, equipping them with the business skills needed to successfully commercialise any medical technology-related research. Professor Aaron Williamon, Head of the Centre for Performance Science, said: ‘The MedTech SuperConnector will help forge a MedTech centre of excellence in London. The CPS will develop innovative, interdisciplinary performance training for early career researchers. CPS researchers – particularly those working in the fields of performance technology, arts in health and performers’ health and wellbeing – will receive support to develop their ideas and explore potential for commercial exploitation.’
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RCMJD RECORD NEW ROYAL COLLEGE OF BALLET SOUNDTRACK MUSIC MAKES MUSIC IN MOSCOW n 18 April, over 100 young dancers from
Below English National Ballet’s Dance Journeys. Pic courtesy of FARM 1027 Opposite Digifest 2018
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four secondary schools and English National Ballet’s youth dance company, ENBYouthCo, took to the Sadler’s Wells stage to present Chrysalis. The work was set to a powerful original music score composed and produced by Royal College of Music Junior Department (RCMJD) alumnus Thomas Hewitt Jones, recorded by the RCMJD Contemporary Ensemble in the College’s Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, and conducted by RCM alumnus Jacques Cohen. English National Ballet’s Dance Journeys, supported by John Lyon’s Charity, gives young people a unique opportunity to create, perform and experience being part of a professional company, working with professional choreographers. Composer Thomas Hewitt Jones said: ‘It is a pleasure to have been commissioned to write the new score for English National Ballet’s Dance Journeys for a second year, and a particular thrill to have collaborated and recorded with the RCMJD Contemporary Ensemble. I enjoyed many happy years as a student in the RCM Junior Department and it is great to see the next generation of talented young musicians coming through the ranks.’ The soundtrack is now available to purchase on iTunes and Spotify, and can be found by searching ‘Chrysalis Hewitt Jones’.
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he RCM has agreed a new artistic and pedagogic partnership with the Central Music School in Moscow. On a recent visit to the Russian capital, RCM Director Colin Lawson and Head of Keyboard, Professor Vanessa Latarche, performed open masterclasses at the Central Music School (CMS), marking the first joint events between the two institutions. Professor Lawson and Professor Valery Piasetsky, Director of the CMS, signed an agreement during the visit which will see collaborative student and staff exchanges and pedagogical projects. The open masterclasses were free of charge and attended by over 120 people, with performances of clarinet music by Weber, led by Professor Lawson, and piano pieces by Mendelssohn and Ravel, led by Professor Latarche. Professor Colin Lawson commented: ‘I am delighted that the RCM is collaborating with the Central Music School and look forward to seeing where the partnership takes us. Our students will benefit greatly from the wonderful teaching and heritage at both institutions.’
THE SCIENCE OF DRUMMING
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n 28 and 29 April the Centre for Performance Science hosted an exhibition as part of the 2018 Imperial Festival, which brought over 20,000 visitors to South Kensington to explore cutting edge science and research. The Centre for Performance Science is an ambitious collaboration between the Royal College of Music and Imperial College, aimed at tackling major challenges of performance. The Science of Drumming exhibition was hosted by CPS Head Aaron Williamon and RCM Research Associates Letizia Gionfrida and George Waddell, with assistance from RCM MSc students Anna Detari, Michael Durrant, Ugne Peistaraite, and Laura Serra. Visitors were given the opportunity to sit at electric drum kits and see first-hand how drumming can be good for their health. Over 600 children, parents, and aspiring rock stars burned calories as they learned that drumming can expend similar amounts of energy to cycling. Participants also battled to make it to the top of the leader board in the BeatIt competition, tapping along to recorded music and continuing when it stopped to see how good they are at keeping the tempo, while also contributing to ongoing RCM research investigating timekeeping and control. RCM PhD candidates Pétur Jónasson and Greg Windle provided two other activities. In Pétur’s Spot the Difference, visitors had to quickly find slight changes in musical scores as they flashed on screen, while sensors tracked their eye movements to demonstrate the different ways people read music. In Greg’s Screen-Play, hosted in partnership with Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and their CW+ charity, visitors made art using digital and traditional media, demonstrating the participatory workshops conducted at the hospital to combat anxiety and promote greater wellbeing.
A SURPRISE APPEARANCE AT DIGIFEST
BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
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n orchestra of 30 RCM students and recent graduates made a surprise guest appearance at the opening session of Digifest in Birmingham in March. Digifest takes place every year at the International Convention Centre, and offers members of the public the opportunity to meet experts in the field and to see, hear and share the latest innovations in technology. RCM composition for screen student Eduardo Andrade, an RCM Scholar supported by a Parnassus Award and the Royal College of Music, wrote the score for a new film which opened this year’s event. As the film was played it was revealed that the score was being performed live behind the projection gauze by the RCM orchestra, conducted by Eduardo. Using innovative LOLA technology, the orchestra played the music live with a rock band in Edinburgh Napier, whose live video link was interspersed with the film. Eduardo said: ‘It’s fantastic to be able to perform music using low-latency streaming technology to create a hybrid orchestra with players from the Royal College of Music physically in the hall in Birmingham and players from Napier streaming from Scotland projected in the screen.’
our talented young musicians from the Royal College of Music Junior Department, plus RCMJD alumna Stephanie Childress, competed in this year’s BBC Young Musician category finals. Junior Department players Marie Sato (flute), Francis Bushell (bassoon), Toril Azzalini-Machecler (percussion) and Will Duerden (double bass) have taken part in the prestigious competition, which was broadcast on BBC Four over the last few months. The RCM’s Junior Department has a track record of success in the competition with pianist Lara Melda winning in 2010, followed by cellist Laura van de Heijden in 2012. Most recently, pianist Martin James Bartlett took home the trophy in 2014, following a memorable performance of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Martin has since gone to study on the BMus programme at the College. A special programme broadcast on BBC2 also featured former finalists, one of whom was RCMJD graduate Ben Goldscheider, who reached the final of the BBC Young Musician Competition in 2016.
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Below Josephine Goddard and Catriona Hewitson at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards Final in April Opposite The Paston Treasure
MUSEUM ROADSHOW
ROYAL OVER-SEAS LEAGUE SUCCESS
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The specially curated exhibition was the result of new research by the Museum team, and featured images of some of the most significant instruments in the RCM collection accompanied by fascinating stories. It centred around the idea that ‘Music is Creation’ and offered a sneak-peek of some of the highlights that will be on display in the RCM Museum’s new home, currently being built as part of the More Music project.
The 2018 Competition marks the third time in the past five years that an RCM woodwind player studying with Kyle Horch has won the ROSL Woodwind Prize. Saxophonists Philip Attard and Huw Wiggin won the category in 2016 and 2014 respectively, with Huw going on to win the overall Gold Medal.
he Royal College of Music Museum’s Roadshow continued its tour across London and the South East this term with a pop up exhibition at the National Trust’s Mottisfont Abbey in May.
Mottisfont Abbey was the childhood home of organologist and keyboard collector Raymond Russell, whose collection is now housed at the University of Edinburgh. A special talk given by RCM Museum Curator Gabriele Rossi Rognoni explored the fascinating historic keyboard instruments in the RCM’s collection, including the earliest known stringed keyboard instrument, the clavicytherium c 1480. Guests were also treated to a concert of historical music, with performances on the harpsichord and baroque violin by RCM musicians Abel Balazs and Ilaria Macedonio.
oyal College of Music saxophonist Jonathan Radford has won the Gold Medal in the Royal Overseas League (ROSL) Annual Music Competition 2018. Jonathan is studying for an Artist Diploma in Performance with Kyle Horch and is the RCM’s current Mills Williams Junior Fellow. He was also a finalist for this year’s Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT).
The Gold Medal Final of the 66th ROSL Annual Music Competition took place on Monday 4 June at the Southbank centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Four musicians competed for the chance to win £15,000, including RCM violinist Emmanuel Bach, winner of the Strings Prize, accompanied by RCM alumna Kumi Matsuo. The RCM’s Marmen Quartet won this year’s Ensemble Prize and wind quintet Ensemble Solaire won the Elias Fawcett Award for an Outstanding Ensemble. Elliot Gresty, fourth year RCM clarinettist, won the Award for a Woodwind Player of Promise.
KATHLEEN FERRIER AWARDS RCM performers have once again enjoyed success at the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Following two outstanding performances at the Final at Wigmore Hall on 27 April, soprano Josephine Goddard was awarded Second Prize while Catriona Hewitson received the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize. Josephine performed a programme of arias and songs by Duparc, Puccini, Britten and J Strauss II, while Catriona won the Song Prize for her rendition of ‘C’ from Poulenc’s Deux Poèmes de Louis Aragon. Both Josephine and Catriona study at the RCM International Opera School.
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FEATURE
The Paston Treasure: a musical puzzle Earlier this year a fascinating discovery was made in a famous 17th-century painting, and the pieces of a centuriesold musical puzzle were finally put together with the help of RCM Director of Research, Professor Richard Wistreich. The Paston Treasure has puzzled scholars for centuries. The exquisite oil painting was commissioned circa 1665 by the Pastons, a wealthy and influential Norfolk aristocratic family. The RCM already has a link to the family: a valuable 16th-century lute manuscript belonging to the Pastons is housed in the RCM collections. The family also owned an opulent art collection, and this commission in particular offers a glimpse into their extraordinary world of wealth and privilege. The artist behind the masterpiece, however, remains a mystery. The painting forms the centrepiece of a major exhibition entitled ‘The Paston Treasure: Riches and Rarities of the Known World’, which is currently taking place at Norwich Castle. While studying the painting, researchers were interested in identifying the fragment of music visible in the open book in the foreground. Close investigation led to it being identified as an accurate depiction of some bars from an actual composition, ‘Charon, O Charon, heare a wretch opprest’, by the English composer, Robert Ramsey, otherwise only known from a single copy in the Bodleain Library in Oxford. Almost forgotten today, Ramsey is known for a few sacred compositions and some rather exquisite secular songs and dialogues. Once the work had been identified and a complete performing version reconstructed, the RCM’s Director of Research, Professor Richard Wistreich, brought together a group of expert musicians to bring the piece back to life. Here, he talks to Upbeat about how he helped to make music from hidden treasure. Richard says: The painting contains an abundance of richlydecorated objects, including several musical instruments, as well as two haunting figures. One, a small girl believed to be the ten-year-old Margaret Paston, is holding an open book of music. A mini opera Because of the angle and the fold of the book, only fragments of the music are visible, but they are enough to show that the piece is a dialogue for soprano and bass singer, with an
instrumental bass line, typical of the period, from which a viol, lute or harpsichord player improvises. The few visible words reveal that the piece is part of a ‘Charon’ dialogue – a sort of miniature opera.
Above The Paston Treasure Image courtesy Norwich Castle Museum
The eureka moment The curators at the Yale Centre for British Art sent out a call to myself and other scholars who work on 17th-century English song, to see if anyone could identify the music precisely. In the end, it was my colleague Professor Jo Wainwright at the University of York who had the eureka moment, identifying the few notes and words as belonging to the dialogue by Ramsey. Reconstructing a treasure Using the known version of the song, Jo was able to reconstruct the dialogue. The obvious next step was to bring the music back to life, 450 years after it had been frozen into the still life. I gathered a group of musicians into the RCM Studios, where Studio Engineer Stephen Harrington produced a recording. I took the bass part, Rosanna Wicks sang the soprano part, and Kieran Whity joined for the Chorus of Spirits. The superb lutenist, Elizabeth Kenny, played an English theorbo -- an unusual instrument, almost identical to the one in the painting.
You can hear the recording at The Paston Treasure exhibition at Norwich Castle until 23 September 2018.
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FEATURE
I was Glad: the legacy of SIR Hubert Parry October marks 100 years since the death of former RCM Director Sir Hubert Parry. In February, the RCM welcomed author and journalist Dr Simon Heffer to mark the centenary in the annual Crees Lecture. While Parry’s contribution as a composer is now widely recognised, Dr Heffer honoured the equally significant contribution he made as teacher and leader of the College.
Below Drawing of Parry by Sidney Kent, courtesy of RCM collections Opposite Sir Hubert Parry pictured aboard his yacht. Anonymous, taken ‘off Sark’, c 1900. Photo courtesy of RCM collections
In a year of centenaries – the end of WW1 and the beginning of universal suffrage to name just a couple – Parry’s in particular is held dear by the Royal College of Music. The composer led a remarkable life, by anyone’s standards. He received a knighthood from Queen Victoria in 1848, an honorary doctorate from both Cambridge and Oxford, and became a baronet in 1902. Today, he can count Prince Charles among his fans. (In a BBC4 documentary about Parry’s music, HRH said, ‘It gives you tingles up the spine and tears in your eyes’). Indeed, despite beginning his official musical career relatively late (he spent seven years as an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London after graduating) Parry managed to become one of the most appreciated and important composers of his time, often referred to as the nation’s ‘unofficial composer laureate’. Even as a young boy, Parry excelled both musically and intellectually. He was born in 1816 and attended Twyford School and Eton College, where he became the youngest person ever to successfully sit the Oxford Bachelor of Music exam. On 28 October, choirs from both Twyford and Eton will join with RCM musicians to honour their past pupil in a special anniversary evening concert in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. A study day will also take place at the College, co-organised by the RCM and the University of Southampton, which will examine Parry’s work as Professor and Director, and his legacy throughout the 20th century. Parry first became involved with the College through his friend – and the first ever Director of the RCM – Sir George Grove. After leaving his position at Lloyd’s, Grove appointed Parry as sub-editor of his Dictionary of Music and Musicians, to which he was to contribute more than 200 articles. Later, in 1883, Grove invited
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Parry to become Professor of Musical History at the newly founded RCM. And then, in 1895 and at the height of his fame, Parry succeeded Grove as Director. A man with strong humanitarian convictions and artistic ideals, Parry was also a man of huge ambition – both for his own work and that of the College. In 1915, he told his students that, ‘The Royal College of Music has always been a place with big aims of doing special services to the nation, and it was organised from the start with a view to their attainment’. In February, author and journalist Dr Simon Heffer marked the centenary of the former Director in the College’s annual Crees Lecture. In his address, Dr Heffer remarked that, ‘Parry seems to have grasped from early on that in England the art of music would require institutions to carry it forward if it were ever to be something more than light entertainment’. Parry saw the RCM as one such institution. For the following 35 years, he made it his life’s work to ensure that the conservatoire, and its musicians, were at the forefront of British music. Dr Heffer continued, ‘His teaching, and his inspiration, launched the careers of some of the greatest names in the history of English music. Through them, not only did Parry succeed in putting music at the centre of our national culture to the point where our great composers – most of them his pupils – were household names, but he was godfather to the creation of what perhaps his most celebrated pupil, Ralph Vaughan Williams, called a truly “national music”’. Parry was a talented and influential teacher who vividly communicated to his students not only a passion for music, but also the important role that music plays in British society. Dr Heffer
commented that, ‘It became the main part of Parry’s mission to ensure that no sheep became lost in the pastures that were English music, and he succeeded brilliantly. One of his gifts as a teacher was to make his pupils understand the greatness of a composer even if they could not come to like his idiom. His contribution to the understanding of the nature of music was, thereby, prodigious’. Parry, who obtained a Law and History degree from Oxford as well as a BMus, also opened the College doors to lecturers from other disciplines, providing his musicians with an education that stretched beyond their classical training. The composer was himself a prolific writer on all aspects of musicology, as well as a published poet and historiographer. In particular, he felt an affinity with literature and contemporary poetry – a number of his works are set to Shakespeare, while his ninth set of songs is devoted entirely to Mary Coleridge. When Britain entered WW1 in 1914, Parry was faced with the inevitable prospect of losing several gifted musicians to the Front Line. That year, he stood in front of his students and delivered a stirring Director’s speech. ‘If we have to stand in rows over against the Albert Hall with files of Prussian soldiers ready to demolish us,’ he said, ‘we shall all look down the murderous barrels without winking an eyelash’. But in September 1914, the Director lamented: ‘Our pupils are made of different stuff from the pupils of ordinary schools. They are gifted in a rare and special way. Some of them are so gifted that their loss could hardly be made good’. As the war progressed, he began to move in anti-war circles, and he always maintained a deep appreciation for Germanic models of music. Even so, in 1916 Parry accepted a commission from the group Fight for Right to compose a patriotic hymn. The resulting work became his most famous: England’s national song and BBC Proms favourite, Jerusalem. Earlier this year, RCM Research Fellow Dr Jonathan Clinch secured permission from the Parry family to prepare the first edition of another, previously unpublished, piece that Parry penned as the war was drawing to a close: Elegie in C for organ. The work was then performed by William Whitehead at the Royal Festival Hall in April, and is now freely available on the IMSLP website. ‘WW1 had a tremendous effect on Parry,’ explains Jonathan. ‘His vision for the Royal College of Music was that it would produce musicians who would play a full role in society, so in his eyes it was the duty of the men to fight. At the same time, the slaughter of so many of his
young musicians caused him great distress. This beautiful miniature was written in March 1918 and, excluding the orchestration of his earlier song England, was the final music he wrote’. In 1908 ill health forced Parry to give up his chair at Oxford University. He did, however, retain his directorship at the RCM until his death in 1918. It was a position that, whilst not as publicly lauded as his musical works, is still just as deserving of honour. As Dr Heffer remarked, ‘Parry’s contribution to national culture, thanks to his work at the RCM and to that of the pupils he shaped and guided, far exceeds the great music he wrote. It puts him in a league of his own among English musicians’.
Above Parry (right) and his close friend Anselm Guise (left), pictured in 1860. Photo courtesy of Twyford School archives
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FEATURE
A lifetime of musical memories Upbeat talks to More Music Founding Patrons Ruth and Michael West about what music means to them, and why they’ve chosen to support RCM musicians for the last ten years.
Below Dr Michael and Ruth West HonRCM Opposite The Wests with former Ruth West Scholar Victor Maslov, and Michael West Scholar Alžbeta Klasová
Sit down for an hour with Ruth and Michael and they can regale you with a lifetime of musical memories – about the time they were moved to tears at Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre, how they got their first taste of opera in the cinema or, more recently, how they watched with pride as one of their RCM Scholars took to the stage at Glyndebourne. While the couple, originally from Northern Ireland, don’t play any instruments themselves, Ruth explains that ‘the music came out in other ways.’ An eccentric school teacher taught her a different kind of music lesson: that listening could be as rewarding as playing. ‘She said to me one day, “Well Ruth you’re not learning to play the piano so we must put your time to good use.” So she encouraged me to listen to music, and we listened to a lot’. At school, Ruth listened to countless recordings of the Berlin Philharmonic – her teacher’s favourite. At home, she listened to her father switch from Strauss and Mozart to traditional Irish ballads on the piano. And as her own tastes developed, she was drawn towards Tchaikovsky, Britten and Rachmaninoff.
‘Music was just part of life,’ she recalls. ‘It was there, it was natural. It wasn’t put on a huge pedestal that you would be frightened of … it was just music.’ One childhood memory in particular stands out for Ruth – of her father playing the piano in a hotel bar on the cliff edge of the Donegal coast. ‘There was nothing except the sea … and the wind howling outside, it was just so romantic, so earthy, and that’s a musical experience I’ll never forget. I must have been about seven or eight in this place at the end of the world, and these men singing all the old Irish songs, and now that moved me and I’m much older now, and I can still hear them.’ Later, as a social worker, Ruth found that music could also become a means of survival. ‘Life can be difficult, but this is where your music comes in I think, and it’s a little bit less difficult if you can listen to music.’ Now, alongside her husband, she has found a way to give back. The Wests have now been supporting RCM musicians for ten years. ‘I don’t want this to sound awfully pompous,’ explains Ruth, ‘but we have a bit of a social conscience. And after the things I saw in my work, we decided we should do more to support children. We already supported children through the NSPCC, but I thought it would be nice to do something more personal.’ The first RCM musician to receive the Ruth West scholarship was José Antonio Domené, who was a Ruth West Scholar from 2008 until 2011. The couple are still in touch with the award-winning harpist today. Last year, at Glyndebourne, Ruth glanced down at the programme for Hamlet and noticed that another former West Scholar, countertenor Rupert Enticknap, was performing the role of Rosencrantz. ‘We call them sort of our children,’ she says. ‘They’re a lovely family and we’re very proud of all of them.’ Two years ago, Victor Maslov was lucky enough to receive the Ruth West Scholarship. The pianist describes it as ‘the crucial moment at the end of my first year’. The support came at just the right time: a change of circumstance meant that
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Victor’s family in Russia were no longer able to fund his studies. Just months after receiving the award, Victor won the College’s Concerto Competition, and in September he will once again become a Ruth West Scholar when he commences his Masters. While Ruth got her first taste of music at home, Michael received his musical education at the cinema. Every Saturday, while his parents met their friends in town, he was sent to an afternoon matinee. ‘Usually these films were cowboy films,’ he recalls. ‘But on one particular occasion it was Carmen ... and I’ve always had a soft spot for Carmen from that.’ Since then, the couple have seen Bizet’s much-loved opera performed all over the world, from the concert halls of Vienna to Placido Domingo and Teresa Berganza’s memorable performance at the 1977 Edinburgh Festival. They’ve been moved to tears by opera in the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, and cite Christian Gerhaher’s rendition of the Abendstern from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, and Heather Harper’s Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes, as performances that will stay with them forever. As Michael puts it, opera ‘is really one of these things that makes your hair come up, and these are so exceptional’. But while they both enjoy opera and Ruth has loves the full symphony orchestra – as she so eloquently puts it, ‘they just sweep you away, they tear you to pieces’ – it is Michael who has a soft spot for jazz, and in particular the saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. Michael listened to his first jazz records on a friend’s Pye Black Box in a student flat in 1950s Belfast. Years later, he approached Professor Lawson. ‘I just said to him, more or less as a joke, that I assumed the saxophone wasn’t allowed within
the sacred walls of the Royal College of Music, because it’s traditionally thought of as a jazz instrument… he said no, he said we’ve got some very good saxophonists. And I ended up supporting several of them, including Alžbeta.’ Alžbeta Klasová is currently studying on the MPerf programme, but without the West scholarship it’s unlikely she would have been able to come to London at all. ‘I knew that if I didn’t get support I would have to stay in Slovakia,’ she says. ‘And that would mean I would have to finish with my music because there wasn’t enough education for me to study. Because the saxophone, and in classical music especially, it’s so new that basically we don’t have any tuition for that.’ Alžbeta remembers the day she received the good news. ‘When I got notified about the scholarship I just remember that conversation with mum, and we both cried and were really happy. It just changed my life so much. I know that the gift I’ve been given since I was born would just have been wasted because I would not have been able to do anything with it.’ As well as supporting several musicians over the years, the Wests are keen supporters of the More Music: Reimagining the Royal College of Music campaign. In fact, the Britten Theatre Foyer will be renamed the Ruth West Foyer in honour of the couple’s significant contribution to the College. The couple explain what attracted them to the campaign. ‘Well we thought, you need the money now not when we die,’ jokes Michael. ‘It is very exciting because it’s all about things moving on, moving ahead, looking to the future, not getting stuck in a rut,’ Ruth says. ‘So I think it’s very hopeful and lovely.’
We call them sort of our children ... They’re a lovely family and we’re very proud of all of them. Ruth West
‘That’s what drew us into it in the first place,’ Michael continues. ‘The feeling that this outfit is worth supporting … I think that, if you’re able to and you’ve been successful, you have some duty to try to help other people’. ‘To help them fulfil their dreams, to give them an opportunity,’ adds Ruth. ‘We’re proud of all our students … they’re all – as far as we’re concerned – heading for the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Mariinsky or Vienna.’
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SUPPORT US
SUPPORTING THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC Music has the power to transform lives. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, generations of gifted students from around the world have been nurtured and trained at the RCM. We would like to thank in particular our More Music Founding Patrons and Leadership Supporters, as well as those who have made donations of £5,000 or more between May 2017 and May 2018 who are acknowledged below. Gifts are listed alphabetically in order of surname.
SUPPORTING THE FUTURE OF MUSIC From becoming an RCM Friend to leaving a gift in your will, there are many ways you can support the Royal College of Music. For more information, please visit www.rcm.ac.uk/ supportus Alternatively, contact the Development team on 020 7591 4331 or development@rcm.ac.uk
More Music Founding Patrons ABRSM The Estate of George Frederick Burgan The Estate of Basil Coleman Croucher Hong Kong Charitable Foundation Heritage Lottery Fund The Estate of Christopher Hogwood CBE HonDMus Kingdom Music Education Group Rena & Sandro Lavery The Estate of Neville Wathen Ruth West HonRCM & Dr Michael West Garfield Weston Foundation Leadership Supporters The Derek Butler Trust G & K Boyes Charitable Trust Philip Carne MBE HonRCM & Christine Carne The Estate of John & Marjorie Coultate The Estate of Jocelyn Cruft The Estate of Margaret Dewey The Foyle Foundation The Future of Russia Foundation The Harry and Gylla Godwin Charitable Trust HEFCE Linda Hill HonRCM & Dr Tony Hill Sara Nelson Horner The Leverhulme Trust The Linbury Trust
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The Estate of William Mealings The Mirfield Trust The Polonsky Foundation Geoffrey Richards HonRCM & Valerie Richards The Estate of Michael Rimmer Victoria, Lady Robey OBE HonRCM The Estate of Emma Rose Soirée d’Or Scholarships The Wolfson Foundation Major Supporters Jane Barker CBE FRCM Laurie Barry The Bertarelli UK Foundation The Estate of Heather Curry The John Curwen Society Peter & Annette Dart Fishmongers’ Company Hamish & Sophie Forsyth The Harbour Foundation The Hargreaves and Ball Charitable Trust The Headley Trust Help Musicians UK Kirby Laing Foundation John Lewis Partnership Professor Christopher & Vivienne Liu Philip Loubser Foundation The Estate of Billy Newman John Nickson & Simon Rew The Pure Land Foundation The Julia & Hans Rausing Trust The Estate of Olive Gwendoline Rees The Estate of Ann Richardson Dasha Shenkman OBE HonRCM
Peter & Dimity Spiller H R Taylor Trust Michael Whittaker and the Big Give Christmas Challenge The Henry Wood Accommodation Trust Supporters The Estate of Gillian Ashby Ashley Family Foundation BAE Dr Linda Beeley Lord Black & Mark Bolland The Boltini Trust Bowerman Charitable Trust Anne Bradley Cambri__dge in America Sir Roger & Lady Carr HonRCM The Estate of Ella Carstairs The Thomas Sivewright Catto Charitable Settlement The Estate of Roselyn Ann Clifton Parker Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE The Drapers’ Company The Gilbert & Eileen Edgar Foundation Lesley Ferguson The Freakley Family In memory of Alvin Gold Elaine Greenberg & Linda Perez Helen Hamlyn Trust The Estate of Barbara Margaret Holt The Houston Family Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells
Let the music play on! Becoming an RCM Friend is the best way to keep up with the news and events at the Royal College of Music. Your support also helps us to provide world-class education and training to our talented students. Membership starts at just £40 a year and you can enjoy a range of benefits including: • • •
Priority booking and access to the best seats for all RCM concerts and opera performances Invitations to an exclusive programme of RCM Friends events Subscription to the termly RCM Events Guide and Upbeat magazine
An RCM Friend membership also makes an ideal gift for a music-loving friend or family member. To become a Friend or for more information about the RCM Friends programme please contact our Supporter Engagement Officer by emailing friends@rcm.ac.uk
JMC Ruth Keattch Lark Insurance Professor Colin Lawson CBE FRCM Lee Abbey London Carol & Geoff Lindey Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust The Hon Richard Lyttelton & Romilly Lyttelton The Honourable Society of the Knights of the Round Table The Dolly Knowles Charitable Trust The Estate of Anthony Mason The Mercers’ Company Jamie Milford Rosemary Millar HonRCM & Richard Millar The Countess of Munster Musical Trust Midori Nishiura HonRCM Humphrey Norrington OBE FRCM The Charles Peel Charitable Trust P F Charitable Trust Pro Musica Ltd The Stanley Picker Charitable Trust The Estate of Charles Stewart Richardson Sir Simon & Lady Robertson Hilda Scarth Kathleen Beryl Sleigh Charitable Trust South Square Trust Steinway & Sons Ian Stoutzker CBE FRCM Tait Memorial Trust
Ian & Meriel Tegner The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation UK Lynette Tiong Universal Music Group Rev Lyndon van de Pump FRCM & Edward Brooks FRCM The Wall Trust Sir Peter & Lady Walters Bob & Sarah Wigley The Mills Williams Foundation Jane Wilson Professor Lord Winston & Lady Winston The Worshipful Company of Musicians The Wyseliot Charitable Trust And those who wish to remain anonymous
CIRCLES FOR EXCELLENCE MEMBERS Chairman’s Circle Brian & Janice Capstick Philip Carne MBE HonRCM & Christine Carne Guy Dawson & Samantha Horscroft Gisela Gledhill Linda Hill HonRCM & Dr Tony Hill Terry Hitchcock TSH Prince Donatus and Princess Heidi Von Hohenzollern David James Clare & James Kirkman James & Margaret Lancaster Lark Insurance Dr Mark Levesley & Christina Hoseason Victoria, Lady Robey OBE HonRCM Roland Saam Dasha Shenkman OBE HonRCM Alethea Siow & Jeremy Furniss Betty Sutherland Brian & Anne Wadsworth OBE Ruth West HonRCM & Dr Michael West
Russell Race Peter & Dimity Spiller Patrons’ Circle Isla Baring OAM Jane Barker CBE FRCM John & Halina Bennett Lady Bergman Lorraine Buckland Sir Anthony Cleaver FRCM & Lady Cleaver Elisabeth de Kergorlay Dr Ian & Janet Edmondson Professor Alice Gast Lily & Julian Harriss Greta Hemus John & Susan Heywood David & Sue Lewis Charles & Dominique Lubar David Mildon Ellen Moloney Jennifer Neelands Kara Radcliffe Kerry & Dimity Rubie Sir Richard & Lady Sykes Anthony Thornton Rhoddy Voremberg John Ward Sir Robert & Lady Wilson
Director’s Circle Sir Peter & Lady Middleton FRCM John Nickson & Simon Rew Richard Price FRCM & Sue Price UPBEAT SUMMER 2018
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STUDENT UPDATES
STUDENT UPDATES Below The Daphnis Trio Bottom Laura Farre Rozada’s debut album, The French Reverie
Vocal Accolades Soprano Nardus Williams has been selected for the 2018–19 Houston Grand Opera Studio programme… Mezzo soprano Ida Ranzlov has been awarded the Musicians’ Company Maisie Lewis Award and is to become a Yeoman of the Company... Mezzo soprano Annabel Kennedy has won Second Prize in the AESS Courtney Kenny Singing Competition… Glen Cunningham, Josephine Goddard and Joel Williams have been awarded the First, Second and Third Prizes, respectively, in the Vocal Section of the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition… Stephen Mills has been offered a place at the Lyon Opera Studio.
KEYBOARD ACCOMPLISHMENTS John Tsz Long Lee has won First Prize at the Clamo International Piano Competition… Antoine Pichon has won Third Prize at the World Piano Teachers Association International Piano Competition, performed for the BBC Radio 3 broadcast In Tune and has been selected for a masterclass at Norway’s Jiri Hlinka Piano Academy, and for the Colluvio chamber music course… Chi-Hoi Cheung has been awarded a Polonsky Foundation Fellowship to study with Hung-Kuan Chen at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado… Stephanie Shucksmith, Prajna Indrawati and Alex Stobbs have been awarded the First, Second and Thrid Prizes, respectively, in the Piano Section of the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition… Laura Farre Rozada has released her debut album, The French Reverie, which features works by Messiaen and Dutilleux and a commission from RCM composition student Joel Järventausta… Aleksandar Pavlovic has won First Prize at the Concours International de Piano Alexandre Scriabine… The Daphnis Trio (Maria Kustas, Maria Gîlicel and Jobine Siekman) has won Third Prize at the Birmingham Intercollegiate Piano Trio Competition… Sten Heinoja and Irena Radić have won First Prize and Second Prize, respectively, in the Kendall Taylor Beethoven Piano Competition while Roelof Temmingh and Rustam Khanmurzin
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were Highly Commended. Irena has also been awarded the Finalists’ Prize in the Bromsgrove Competition.
STRING SUCCESSES Robbie Stanley-Smith and Kristiana Ignatjeva have won the RCM Cello Prize, Nina Kiva has won the RCM unaccompanied Bach Prize and Jobine Seikman, Florian Belbeoch, Lucy Gijsbers, Samuel Ng, Findlay Spence and Kieran Carter have been Highly Commended in the RCM Cello Competition 2018… Violist Tilly Chester has performed with the British Paraorchestra at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) International Conference in Greece… Yume Fujise has been awarded the Ian Stoutzker, W H Reed & Stanley Blagrove Violin Prize… Violinist David Lopez has won the RCM Isolde Menges Prize for unaccompanied Bach… Thea Butterworth has won First Prize in the RCM Harp Competition 2018 and Bethan Griffiths has been Highly Commended… Emma Arizza has been invited to become Artist in Residence for La Fondazione Societá dei Concerti di Milano’s 2018/19 season… Violinist Dillon Jeffares has won Second Prize in the Leonid Kogan Violin Competition… Ana Dunne Sequi has been awarded the Viola Prize and Marsailidh Groat Hardy has been awarded the unaccompanied Bach Prize in the RCM Viola Competition 2018... The Marmen Quartet have been selected for the Musicians’ Company Concerts Concordia Award and will perform at Wigmore Hall in July 2019.
WOODWIND AWARDS Oboist Rich Lines-Davies has been selected as student ensemble oboe player for the London Sinfonietta Academy 2018… Flautist Sirius Kei Chau has won the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Competition, and the Flute Prize and the overall Edward & Helen Hague Senior Woodwind Prize in the RCM Solo Woodwind Competition 2018… Bassoonist Justin Sun has been awarded the Musicians’ Company Maisie Lewis Award and will perform in the Musicians’ Company
concert series in March 2019… The Parallax Saxophone Quartet (Alžbeta Klasová, María Luzuriaga López, Isabel Stewart-Kasimba and Jess Martin) have performed to a sell-out audience at the Košice Spring Festival 2018… Maddy Millar has won the Howarth Bassoon Prize, Alec Harmon has won the RCM Oboe Prize, Lewis Graham has won the RCM Yamaha Clarinet Prize... Saxophonist Sara Mendez Arias has been awarded Joint First Prize in the RCM Contemporary Competition 2018.
TOP BRASS Joel Ashford has won the Horn Prize, Ross Johnson has won the Trombone Prize, Tom Torley has won the Tuba Prize and Peter Athans has been awarded the Trumpet Prize and the overall Brodie Prize in the RCM Solo Brass Competition 2018… Hornist Alexander Oon has been awarded Joint First Prize and trombonist Judith Richmond has received a Highly Commended in the RCM Contemporary Competition 2018.
COMPOSITION CONGRATULATIONS Sarah Playford has been awarded Best European Animation at the Premier Plans Festival for her score for the animation Barbecue, which was also selected for Channel 4’s new Random Acts series... Nathanael Gubler has been selected for the Lucerne Festival Academy and was a fellow at the Alba Festival composition programme, as well as a Featured Young Performer for the London Ear Festival... Lara Poe and Joel Jarventausta have been selected for the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Composers Scheme… James Yan has been placed in the top ten at the Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition and has recorded three works with a 56-piece orchestra of RCM students at Abbey Road Studios… Connor D‘Netto has been awarded funding in the 2018 APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund to support his third string quartet, which will be premiered by the Goldner String Quartet in 2019… Lisa Illean will premiere her new piece at Kings Place in September, to be performed by RCM alumni Explore Ensemble.
Doctoral Activities Konstantinos Destounis has released his new CD, the premiere recording of the complete piano works by Theodore Antoniou… Sara Ascenso has co-authored a book, Leadership in, and through, Music Education, to be released this summer… Isobel Clarke and Barbara Gentili have been invited to present at the 54th Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association… Keith Bowen has been selected to present at SysMusic 2018… Kenneth Querns has founded the Bel Canto Festival in London and Venice… Max Wong has been elected Managing Trustee of the Guernsey Harpsichord Trust… Raquel Garcia-Tomas’ new mono drama Balena Blava premiered in April in the National Theatre of Catalonia… Gregory Windle will present results from his hospital ethnography at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2018… Yang Liu has been commissioned to compose a duet for the Phoenix String Quartet… Liam Taylor-West’s immersive audio company Roomsize has been awarded £20,000 as part of the Digital Catapult and Arts Council England’s CreativeXR programme… Edwin Hillier and Nicholas Morrish-Rarity have attended IRCAM’s multidisciplinary festival and academy, ManiFeste, in Paris, where they worked with Ensemble Intercontemporain… Lisa Illean has been selected to premiere her new work, Sleeplessness... Sails, at Cadogan Hall as part of the BBC Proms… George Waddell has led a workshop on the science of auditioning for principals, members, and administrators of the London Philharmonic, based on research which will be published in Frontiers in Psychology and Music Perception… Pétur Jónasson will present a paper on distance performance (co-authored with Dr Tania Lisboa) via LoLa at the Performance Studies Network Conference in Oslo. The conference will also feature an RCM panel presentation on musical notation in the 21st century, led by pianist Maksim Stsura, composer Nicholas MorrishRarity and Pétur Jónasson.
SHARE YOUR NEWS Tell Upbeat readers about your recent successes by emailing news@rcm.ac.uk
Above Connor D’Netto Below James Yan recording with a 56-piece orchestra of RCM students at Abbey Road Studios
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STAFF UPDATES
STAFF UPDATES Right Tania Lisboa with musicians of the Neojiba Youth Orchestra Below William Mival at the Beijing Modern Music Festival
Historical Violin professor Bojan Čičić has been appointed leader of the Academy of Ancient Music. The violin and viola d’amore specialist has been principal player for the orchestra for five years. Piano professor Norma Fisher has released a new archive recording. Norma Fisher at the BBC, Vol.1 is Norma’s first-ever commercial release and features some of her best broadcast performances from the BBC archives, remastered by Sonetto Classics. Musicianship teacher Russell Hepplewhite was commissioned by the RCM Junior Department to compose this year’s Choral Commission. The resulting work, If Stars Dropped Out Of Heaven, for upper voices and organ, received its world premiere in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall in March. Joy Hill conducted the combined Girls’ Choir and Girls’ Concert Choir with Graham Thorpe playing organ. The piece is due to be published later this year. Piano professor Peter Jablonski will perform at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in July alongside RCM alumna and Festival Music Director, Vicky Yannoula. Forming part of The Classical Collection, the duo’s energetic two-piano extravaganza will include some of the most iconic pieces from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, as well as Debussy’s Fêtes from Nocturnes and Lutoslawski’s utterly thrilling Paganini Variations.
Visiting Professor of Vocal Studies Brindley Sherratt was shortlisted as a Finalist in the Solo Singer category at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. The bass singer will also perform Arkel in a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande for the Glyndebourne Festival this summer and Rustomji in Satyagraha and Ramfis in a new production of Aida for the English National Opera in October. Postgraduate professor of Conducting Peter Stark has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. Peter will conduct an international orchestra of 180 members from over 60 schools in Singapore, aged between 10 and 22. Head of Historical Performance Ashley Solomon will be performing Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for solo flute this summer at the Beverley Early Music Festival, Stour and Buxton Festivals and on tour in France, Italy and Spain. In addition Ashley’s ensemble, Florilegium, recently released a double CD recording of Telemann’s Essercizii Musici, which has been selected by British Airways for their inflight entertainment collection. Ashley was also featured in a New York Times article on baroque music in May. Composition professor Mark-Anthony Turnage has been awarded the Large-Scale Composition Prize at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards for Hibiki. The piece was commissioned as a Requiem for the 2011 earthquake and
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tsunami in Japan and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. The jury commented that the work, ‘demonstrates an eloquent and mature handling of a culturally and politically sensitive commission ... skillfully woven with Japanese elements, from a master craftsman at the height of his powers.’ Professor Trevor Herbert has been appointed to a Personal Chair as Professor of Music Research. Trevor is a former foundation scholar of the RCM and Research Fellow. He has been a professional trombonist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Welsh National Opera, amongst others, and has won various awards and prizes, including several AHRC and British Academy awards. Head of Keyboard Vanessa Latarche gave an afternoon masterclass at Dulwich College as part of the Dulwich College Piano Festival in April. Head of Keyboard at Dulwich is an RCM alumnus and former Junior Fellow, Luis Pares. Dr Tania Lisboa, Research Fellow at CPS, has spent a week working with Dr Diana Santiago and musicians of the Neojiba Youth Orchestra in Bahia, Brazil, as part of a three-year research project supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. The project is the culmination of a long-standing collaboration between the Centre for Performance Science and the Federal University of Bahia (UFA), Brazil. It applies findings from CPS research to the practice and memorisation strategies of children and adolescents who attend music making and social inclusion programmes. Senior Research Assistant Sasha Kaye has received a CUBO RA Residence Life Award 2018 Award, in the category of RA Awards for Private Partners, for her work with the student community at Prince Consort Village. Assistant Librarian Federica Nardacci has written a play on the iconic opera diva Maria Callas. The production, Maria Callas: The Black Pearl, will be performed at The Grange Park Opera Festival on 14 July and will star Marco Gambino, with Sophie Aldred directing and music by Claudio Di Meo. William Mival’s Correntandemente (Runninglyish) was performed at the ISCM World Music Day last month as part of the Beijing Modern Music Festival. The work was nominated by the Welsh section of the ISCM and originally written for RCM’s New Perspectives ensemble. It was first performed at the RCM in 2015 and received its Chinese premiere in May by the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra under Li Yang. While in China, William also visited the Shanghai Conservatory where he gave a masterclass to BMus and Masters composers.
Alexander Technique tutors Peter Buckoke and Judith Kleinman led a number of workshops and one-to-one teaching lessions at the Shanghai Conservatory in May. Both schoolaged and graduate students were introduced to the Alexander Technique through a variety of practical sessions, which included hands-on work in semi-supine. Peter and Judith hope to return to the conservatory in the future to see how the students have progressed after taking their ideas into personal practice. RCM Museum Research Assistant Anna Maria Barry has written two blog posts, available at www.rcm.ac.uk/news, which detail recent research into the RCM collections. In May, she received a request from some scuba divers who had discovered a Sébastian Erard harp in a shipwreck off the Eastbourne coast. The RCM Library houses the originals of Erard’s company ledgers, and staff used digitalised versions of the records to establish that the instrument was most likely lost on a ship to Dublin in 1840. Anna’s second blog post concerns the discovery of a large wooden doll that has also been unearthed in the RCM collections. The doll has a somewhat unusual musical past:18th-century double bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti was said to have ‘married’ the figurine, and referred to it as his ‘wife’.
Top Vanessa Latarche gives a masterclass at the Dulwich College Piano Festival (image courtesy of Dulwich College) Above The wooden ‘wife’ of 18th-century double bassist Domenico Dragonetti
SHARE YOUR NEWS Tell Upbeat readers about your recent successes by emailing news@rcm.ac.uk
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ALUMNI UPDATES
ALUMNI UPDATES SHARE YOUR NEWS Tell Upbeat readers about your recent successes by emailing news@rcm.ac.uk
Below Soprano Elin Manahan Bottom The Bun-Leng Trio
Michael Allis, Professor of Musicology at the University of Leeds, has published a new book, Granville Bantock’s Letters to William Wallace and Ernest Newman, 1893–1921: Our new dawn of modern music. As well as reproducing the letters the British composer penned to his friend and fellow composer Wallace, and to the music critic Ernest Newman, the publication features a commentary and introduction. Violinist Wonhee Bae has won first prize in the Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition with the Esmé Quartet. The all-female Korean ensemble has scooped £10,000 as well as a package of recitals and residencies, including a Wigmore Hall date in the 2018/19 season and residencies at the Banff Centre and Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and a record deal with Champs Hills Records. The quartet also received the £1,000 Alan Bradley Mozart Prize. Period-instrument wind ensemble Boxwood & Brass, led by clarinettists Dr Emily Worthington and Fiona Mitchell, will make its debut at the York Early Music Festival this July. A two-CD recording project of Beethoven wind music, including several first recordings, will also be released during 2020. Harpist Jenny Broome and violinist Frances Mason have released a new CD, Hommage aux Demoiselles: Chamber music for Harp & Violin from the repertoire of Marianne & Clara Eissler. In addition to the Saint-Saëns Fantaisie, the recording features, among others, pieces by Carl Oberthür, Louis Spohr, Alphonse Hasselmans, Francis Thomé and John Thomas (harpist to Queen Victoria). Pianist Simon Callaghan has performed an all-Schubert programme at Conway Hall with fellow alumni cellist Ashok Klouda and violinist Jamie Campbell. The gala performance included three magnificent and ever popular works, the Notturno in E flat major, the Trio in B flat major and the Arpeggione Sonata. Antonio Romero Cienfuegos has been appointed double bass teacher in the Higher Conservatory of Salamanca, Spain. Mezzo soprano Katie Coventry has performed the role of Jennie Hildebrand in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene for Teatro Real, Madrid, and has been offered a contract at the Salzburger Landestheater, where she will spend the 2018/19 season.
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Flautist Iris Derke has performed in the World Premiere of Dinos Constantinides’ Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra at Lincoln Center, New York. Iris was the flute soloist for the piece, which was written by the composer in honour of DCINY’s 10th anniversary. Trumpet soloist Simon Desbruslais has released his monograph, The Music and Music Theory of Paul Hindemith. The detailed study charts the evolution of Hindemith’s use of language and examines the theoretical legacy of the often poorly understood composer. Lutenist Martin Eastwell has released a new CD, The Dark Lord’s Music The Lutebook of Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Martin has also produced the CD booklet which contains informative notes on the music and on lute playing technique in the 17th century. Violinist Nadine Galea has performed for HM the Queen, the Royal Family and the Heads of all the Commonwealth countries at Buckingham Palace for the opening of The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April. Last May, Nadine also performed Tzigane by Ravel and Meditation from Thais by Massenet to a full house at the Victoria Hall in Geneva, as soloist with the United Nations Orchestra. Soprano Anna Gorbachyova will perform the title role of Alcina at the Bolshoi Opera next October. Wynton Guess, together with undergraduate student Francisco Vilar and doctoral student Vera Fonte, has organised an international classical music festival in Vale de Cambra, Portugal, which also included performances by RCM students David Zucchi and Nikola Avramovic. Composer Alexandra Harwood has scored Mike Newell’s new feature film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was released in April and stars Lily James, Glen Powell and Tom Courtenay. Alexandra also scored the feature film The Escape, directed by Dominic Savage and starring Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper, and has produced four commissions for I Musicanti’s St John’s Smith Square 2018 concert series. Jon Hopkins has released a new album, Singularity. Described by the New Musical Express as a ‘blissful psychedelic experience’,
the new recording offers 62 minutes of hypnotic electronic and organic techno. Composer George Kallis has been voted Breakthrough Composer of the Year by the International Film Music Critics Association for his work on three films last year: Albion: The Enchanted Stallion, The Black Prince, and The Last Warrior. Amy Manford has performed in front of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as part of the Anzac Day service at Hyde Park Corner. The Australian soprano, who is currently starring in Phantom of the Opera in the West End, was chosen by the Australian High Commission to perform an operatic rendition of the Australian national anthem at the sacred Dawn Service in April. Rodrigo Moro Martín has joined the double bass section of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Rodrigo is currently working as tutti double bass in the National Orchestra of Spain. Pianist Luka Okros has performed at a sell-out concert at the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in Georgia and is currently touring Germany, Austria, Poland, China, and Singapore. Soprano Robyn Parton has performed the titular role in the Royal Opera House’s Coraline at the Barbican in March and April. Saxophonist Guillermo Presa Santana has established the Bun-Leng Trio with current Masters student Tipwatoo Aramwittaya and George Pruksavanich. Since making their debut in London in February, the saxophone trio has performed at the Mallorca Saxophone Festival in Spain and will perform at the World Saxophone Congress in Croatia this month. Soprano Elin Manahan Thomas has performed at the Royal Wedding on 19 May. Elin performed the Introit at the ceremony at St George’s Chapel, singing Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine as the bride made her
entrance and walked up the aisle. Elin was accompanied by an orchestra made up of musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia, with solo trumpet by David Blackadder. Pianist Alexander Ullman has completed a concert tour in Indonesia and released a live recording made at the 11th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, in which he was awarded First Prize. The Indonesian tour forms part of the prestigious award, which comes with €20,000 and a Career Development Program. Naomi Watts has joined the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Naomi played principal cello with the RPO during its 2017 Asia tour, and was invited to join the cello section upon returning to London. The sixth performance of composer Christopher Williams’ oratorio Easter Morning has been performed at the O2 Centre. The work, composed for chorus and five soloists, premiered in 2014 at St Pancras International. Piano musical comedy duo Worbey & Farrell (Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell) have performed at the Brighton Dome with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth, as part of the conductor-laureate’s 70th birthday concert. The two Steinway artists will be performing a full concert at Cadogan Hall in September.
Top Amy Manford performs at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Hyde Park Corner Above Period-instrument wind ensemble Boxwood & Brass Left Alexander Ullman
CONNECT Connect with fellow RCM alumni by joining our LinkedIn group or visit www.rcm.ac.uk/alumni Contact the Alumni team on alumni@rcm.ac.uk or 020 7591 4353.
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IN MEMORY
IN MEMORY
LEAVING A LEGACY By remembering the RCM in your will you can play a significant role in helping the College continue to inspire and educate musicians of the future. For more information on leaving a legacy to the RCM, please contact Lily Harriss, Director of Development & Alumni Engagement, on 020 7591 4746 or lily.harriss@rcm.ac.uk
Stephen Williams began playing violin at the age of nine, before moving on to the viola. He studied at the Birmingham School of Music and taught strings with Worcestershire LEA. He was later awarded the Spencer Scholarship, which enabled him to study at the RCM with Sir Adrian Boult (conducting) and Gordon Jacob (composition). Stephen continued his studies at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik, before returning to Coventry to freelance as a conductor and teacher. He set up the Coventry Music Appreciation Class in 1963, and ran the course for almost 50 years. He lectured at the Coventry Centre for Performing Arts and also founded and directed the Midland Youth Orchestra. Stephen passed away peacefully in March 2017, aged 82. Roderick Swanston joined the RCM as a student from 1966–69 and then attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he held the organ scholarship. Roderick was an RCM staff member for over 28 years, from 1976 until 2004. During this time he held a number of posts including Reader in Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies. Roddy was a very popular lecturer, whose humour and enthusiasm is remembered with fondness by his former students. He taught a variety of courses and inaugurated a large number of others, and his significant contribution was formally recognised when he was admitted as an RCM Fellow in 1994. Most recently, Roderick lectured at Birkbeck College, Imperial College, King’s College, and Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He died in April 2018, aged 69. South African cellist Philip De Groote studied with Eileen Croxford, William Pleeth and Janos Starker at the RCM. It was here that he met violinist Levon Chilingirian and the two students founded the Chilingirian Quartet in 1971, which later became RCM Quartet in Residence. Philip performed with the quartet for over 40 years, touring over 50 countries in six continents. He died in March 2018 at the age of 68.
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UPBEAT SUMMER 2018
Livia Gollancz was a gifted musician and publisher. She learned to play the piano at age six and at 15, she purchased her first horn for £5. Livia was 16 when she was accepted into the RCM to study horn and viola. After graduating, she joined the London Symphony Orchestra and in 1943 she was appointed principal horn of the Hallé Orchestra. During the war, she joined the Scottish Orchestra and later the BBC Scottish Orchestra before becoming principal horn at Covent Garden. She worked at the Old Vic Theatre Company and at Sadler’s Wells Opera during the early 1950s, until dental problems forced her into retirement in 1953. She then joined her father’s prestigious publishing business, Victor Gollancz Ltd, and eventually became managing director. Despite her professional retirement, she continued with amateur music, as a choral singer, violist and violinist. Livia died in March 2018, aged 97. Livia Gollancz
Stuart Campbell studied Russian with French and additional music and economics at Edinburgh University and then, upon receiving a Carnegie Scholarship, completed a Bachelor of Music. An accomplished organist, he studied with William Minay and Herrick Bunney in Edinburgh, and with Alexander Anderson in Glasgow. At 18 he became an Associate of the Royal College of Music in Piano Teaching and later a member of the Glasgow Society of Organists, interim music director at Glasgow Cathedral, organist to Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. In 1975, he was appointed University Organist and music lecturer at the University of Glasgow. There he completed a PhD and his research was published in several journals. Stuart retired in 2000, but continued to lecture, working with Scottish Opera and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2009 he founded the Russkaya Cappella choir with his wife Svetlana, and in 2016 he received the Russian Ambassador’s Letter of Recognition for his work. Stuart died in January 2018 aged 68. Sally Mays was born in Melbourne. The child of two dance band musicians, she developed a keen love of music early on, and a fondness for jazz in particular. She gave her first piano recitals aged 12 and attended the Melbourne Conservatorium, where she was awarded the Clarke scholarship. She subsequently moved to London to study at the RCM, where she won numerous awards, including the Chappell Gold Medal. Afterwards, she studied with Irene Kohler and Marcel Ciampi in Paris. For more than 50 years, Sally made almost annual visits to Australia to give recitals. She was particularly celebrated for her performances of contemporary Australian music and had many works written for her. She edited the four-volume series Australian Piano Music, was a founder member of the Mouth of Hermes, and performed in various ensembles including Sounds Positive, the Alexandra Trio and the Lavolta Ensemble. She was an examiner for the Associated Board and in 2016 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. Sally died in May 2018, aged 88.
Renowned flautist Peter Lloyd was born in Dorset and studied at the RCM with Edward Walker. After graduating, he spent three years as second flute in the Scottish National Orchestra, before moving to Paris to perfect his technique under Fernand Caratgé. He later joined the BBC Northern Orchestra and in 1958 he rejoined the SNO, this time as first flute. When the BBC Northern Orchestra was increased to a full-sized symphony orchestra in 1960, Peter took up first chair once again. Over the years, he studied with Geoffrey Gilbert, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Marcel Moyse. From 1967 to 1987 he was principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music, and a member of several ensembles including the Tuckwell Wind Quintet and the English Taskin Players. In 1987 he moved to Indiana University, where he spent six years as a professor of flute before taking up a teaching position at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he later became an honorary fellow. Peter died in April 2018, aged 86. Alan V Abbott was a conductor, composer and arranger. He was born in Birmingham in 1926 and as a young pianist trained under Joyce Chandler, before WW1 interrupted his studies and he joined the Royal Air Force. Alan taught himself to read orchestral scores during breaks between flying training sessions. He also developed his skills as an arranger by writing for dance bands at aircraft transit camps in the Canadian prairies. Upon returning to the University of Birmingham, he was awarded the Barber Trust scholarship in the final year of his music degree, which enabled him to study orchestration at the RCM. After graduating from the College he specialised in opera and ballet, and his conducting engagements took him across the globe, including appointments in Turkey, Australia and Scandinavia. His most famous piece, Alla caccia for French horn and piano, has become a staple of the recital repertoire, and he also worked on the score for Les Misérables and the ballet of The Merry Widow. Alan died in his home in Birmingham in May, at the age of 91.
UPBEAT SUMMER 2018
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