OF THERCM RISING STARS BREAKING NEWGROUND AWARDING EXCELLENCE IN THISISSUE COLLEGE OFMUSIC INSIDE THEROYAL NEWS FROM 2017 SUMMER

UPBEAT

HIGHLIGHTS FESTIVAL OF PERCUSSION 2017

The RCM’s annual Festival of Percussion returned on 7 May 2017 with an exceptional line-up of events and special guests. Visitors enjoyed performances from artists such as Benny Greb and the Band of the RAF Regiment, alongside family workshops, a day- long Trade Fair and toe-tapping evening concert with the RCM Big Band.

Photos: Chris Christodoulou Front cover: at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World © Brian Tarr

2 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 CONTENTS WELCOME 4 NEWS The latest news and activities from TO UPBEAT the 9 As we went to press with the summer issue of Upbeat, news awarding excellence of alumna Louise Alder’s success at the BBC Cardiff Singer of Upbeat explores the history behind the RCM’s most prestigious awards the World 2017 competition made its way to the Royal College of Music. Louise won the prestigious Dame Audience 10 Prize after getting through to the Song Prize and Main Prize finals of the WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Find out what some of our award competition, and I am thrilled that she has rightly earned a place on the front winners are up to in this special cover of Upbeat. Find out more on page seven. extended article, featuring interviews with Ieuan Jones, Charlotte Harding, On graduating from the RCM in 2013 Louise received the Tagore Gold Katy Woolley and Ruairi Glasheen Medal, an award that was first given out more than a century ago to outstanding students. In this issue we meet four exceptional alumni who were also recognised with RCM awards, and delve into the history behind these 14 SUPPORT US highly prized honours as part of an extended feature starting on page nine. As the summer term draws to a close we look forward to the beginning of an exciting period of transformation of our historic campus. On 13 June, we were 16 joined by RCM Chairman Professor Robert Winston for a special ceremony STUDENT UPDATES to plant the first spade in the ground in the courtyard. I was delighted to mark this historic moment, which will enhance our facilities and ensure the RCM continues to be a world leader in music education. Read more on page four. 18 STAFF UPDATES You can tell us about your own recent projects and achievements by emailing [email protected]. The deadline for the autumn issue of Upbeat is Monday 25 September. 20 ALUMNI UPDATES 22 IN MEMORY Professor Colin Lawson CBE, Director

UPBEAT ONLINE 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 Lucy Cook Designer May Yan Man Design www.splashofpaint.com Contact [email protected] UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 3 NEWS IN THE NEWS

RCM TOPS RANKINGS BREAKING NEW Below RCM Chairman Lord Winston breaks ground FOR SECOND YEAR GROUND on the building works he Royal College of Music has been named n Tuesday 13 June, RCM Chairman Professor Opposite Left Tthe top institution for Performing Arts in the O Robert Winston, together with RCM Director HRH The Prince of Wales United Kingdom in the 2017 QS World University Professor Colin Lawson CBE, marked the start of an with those honoured at the RCM’s awards Rankings for the second consecutive year. The ambitious redevelopment of the RCM campus. RCM is also ranked second across all Performing ceremony The courtyard at the centre of the College will Arts institutions worldwide, moving up one place in be transformed as part of the More Music: Far Right the league table from last year. LOLA performance in Reimagining the Royal College of Music the RCM Studios The QS World University Rankings’ assessment campaign. The event included a rousing fanfare by of leading universities worldwide is based on RCM trumpeters as Lord Winston planted the first the strength and quality of institutions’ teaching, spade in the ground. research activities, graduate employability and Renowned architect John Simpson has reimagined international profile. The rankings are compiled the RCM site, with major enhancements that will from the opinions of academics and employers transform the way students and visitors experience and from analysis of research output and impact. the College for generations to come. The RCM This announcement follows the Royal College has partnered with UK construction contractor of Music’s placement as the top UK specialist Gilbert-Ash, whose award-winning projects include institution for music in the 2017 Complete refurbishment works to the Grade II listed Liverpool University Guide, and success in the latest Research Philharmonic Hall, the extension of the Institute Excellence Framework (2014) in which the RCM of Engineering & Technology in and the was named the London conservatoire with the iconic new 450-seat Everyman Theatre, which won highest percentage of world-leading research. the RIBA Stirling Prize 2014. Lord Winston said: ‘The More Music scheme will unlock the RCM’s potential and secure its long term future as a world leading music conservatoire; I am excited to see the architect’s vision come to life.’

4 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 NEWS IN BRIEF

ROD WILLIAMS MEMORIAL CONCERT In March, representatives from the Mills Williams Foundation awarded this year’s Mills Williams Junior Fellowship to RCM pianist Andrew Yiangou. Peter Mills established the foundation in 1995 in memory of his life-long partner, Rod Williams, with the aim of supporting music and young musicians. The 2017 Memorial Concert took place on 9 March, with the RCM Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon.

LOLA PERFORMANCE IN COPENHAGEN In April, RCM musicians gave a live performance at the Network Performing Arts Production Workshops in Copenhagen from the RCM Studios. This was made possible through Low Latency (LOLA) technology which enables musicians separated by vast distances to perform together in perfect harmony and timing. HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES BESTOWS HONOURS

resident of the Royal College of Music, HRH The Prince of Wales, honoured P outstanding figures in international musical life at the RCM’s annual awards ceremony on Tuesday 7 March. As part of the visit HRH listened to a performance of a guzheng, a rare 21-string Chinese zither, given to him during the State Visit by China in 2015. The guzheng will be on loan to the RCM, which already houses close to 1,000 extraordinary musical SU HEALTH AND WELLBEING WEEK instruments. It is an especially fitting gift given the RCM’s recent agreement with the In May, the RCM Students’ Union hosted its annual Shanghai Conservatory of Music to establish a new Joint Institute in China, the first such Health and Wellbeing Week, which included partnership of any UK music conservatoire. meditation sessions, yoga, a stress workshop with NHS councillors and individual consultations with The guzheng was played by Xiao Ran as part of a short concert which also featured an osteopath. The initiative encouraged students to performances from the College’s most exceptional recent graduates including soprano positively engage with and take responsibility for their Rowan Pierce, awarded The President’s Award; bass Simon Shibambu, mental and physical health and wellbeing. recipient of the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl; and percussionist Kizzy Brooks and bassoonist Todd Gibson-Cornish, recipients of the Tagore Gold Medals. COMMUNITY MUSIC RESEARCH Following the RCM’s recent Arts and Humanities Honorary Doctorates were presented to conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Research Council grant of £45,000 to fund a singer Sir John Tomlinson, former RCM Director Dame Janet Ritterman, and composer partnership between the RCM and York St John Joseph Horovitz. University, the project’s first public event will take Admitted to Fellowship of the Royal College of Music were choral conductor Simon place on 21 September 2017 at the College. Researchers and musicians from the UK, Canada, Halsey, soprano , Principal Trumpet of the Philharmonia Orchestra Norway and Germany will come together to present Alistair Mackie, historical performance musician Jakob Lindberg, Principal of the Royal a stimulating debate that poses the question ‘what do Academy of Music Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, and pianist Nigel Clayton. excellence and inclusion really mean?’ A number of key RCM staff were admitted to Honorary Membership: Performance, Programming and Faculty Manager Florence Ambrose, Research Fellow in Performance RCM JOINS EDUROAM NETWORK Science Tania Lisboa, Facilities Supervisor Mark Traves, and Miranda Francis, Head of The global Eduroam WiFi network – a secure the RCM’s flourishing Junior Department. Also admitted to Honorary Membership were roaming WiFi access service for the education and Richard Adams, Head of Music at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, and research community – is now available at the RCM. Rosemary Millar, a long-standing and generous supporter of the RCM. It can be accessed at most university campuses in the UK and in over 70 countries worldwide. External visitors who have Eduroam at their institution can use the network, as well as RCM students and staff.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 5 NEWS RAMEAU UK PREMIERE BBC PROMS 2017

he Royal College of Music presented the UK’s any of the RCM’s alumni and current students T first staged production of Rameau’s baroque M feature in this year’s BBC Proms season. opera Les fêtes d’Hébé in April, a co-production Soprano Rowan Pierce takes a starring role as of the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris with solo soprano in Handel’s Israel in Egypt alongside the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Vocal partnership with the RCM. Below alumni Louise Alder, Sophie Bevan, Ruby Hughes, Les fêtes d’Hébé at Directed and choreographed by Thomas Lebrun Ben Johnson and Elizabeth Watts also feature Opéra Bastille Photo: Studio j’adore and conducted by Jonathan Williams, the RCM throughout the season. Baroque Orchestra was joined by Les Chantres, ce que vous faites Cellist , pianist Pavel Kolesnikov singers of the Centre de musique baroque de and violinist perform as Opposite Versailles, soloists from the Académie de l’Opéra soloists, Sir Andrew Davis will lead the BBC Louise Alder performs national de Paris, and RCM singers Julieth Lozano, at BBC Cardiff Singer Symphony Orchestra, and John Wilson conducts Eleanor Penfold, Joel Williams and James Atkinson. of the World both his own orchestra and the BBC Scottish Photo: Brian Tarr As part of the project RCM musicians spent Symphony Orchestra. two weeks rehearsing and performing at the Many RCM Junior Department students will once Opéra Bastille in Paris. RCM Junior Fellow again be performing as members of the National Claire Williams, who played harpsichord in the Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, offering up ensemble, said: ‘It was a fantastic experience to Stravinsky’s thrilling The Rite of Spring. New music be involved in such an incredible project. We this season includes the world premiere of The were made to feel very welcome during our time in Spark Catchers by alumna composer Hannah Paris, and that we were truly an integral part of the Kendall and the European premiere of Hibiki by collaboration.’ RCM composition professor Mark-Anthony Turnage. The London performances gained five stars from To see the full BBC Proms season visit The Times, and The Financial Times commented on the collaborative nature of the project, which www.bbc.co.uk/proms it described as a ‘pleasing example of European co-operation in harmony’.

6 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 CENTRE FOR PERFORMANCE SCIENCE AWARDED £1M

joint venture between the Royal A College of Music and Imperial College London has been awarded £1 million for a new research project. The Health, Economic and Social impact of arts engagement (HEartS) project at the Centre for Performance Science, a cross-institutional partnership between the RCM and Imperial, will explore the impact of the arts and culture on health and wellbeing, from individual, social and economic perspectives. One area of study is the link between cultural pursuits – like joining a choir or attending art classes – and the health and wellbeing of society. The work will BBC CARDIFF SINGER be funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. OF THE WORLD Head of the Centre for Performance Science and RCM professor Aaron Alumna Louise Alder has won the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize 2017 Williamon said: ‘We are keen to discover at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. not only the effects of culture on health The prize – named after the much-loved RCM alumna and soprano – is voted and happiness, but why those effects for by audiences in the hall and across the globe. Louise reached both the happen. For example, joining a choir Song Prize and Main Prize finals of the competition, held at St David’s Hall after work may improve your health, but in Cardiff on 16 and 18 June. Her performances, including ‘Qui la voce sua is that the result of socialising, creating soave… Vien diletto’ from Bellini’s I puritani and ‘I want magic!’ from Previn’s something, or a combination of the two?’ A Streetcar Named Desire, are available to view on the competition’s website. To date there have been few large-scale Louise graduated from the RCM International Opera School in 2013 as the studies involving the arts across the UK. inaugural scholar, where she studied with Dinah Harris. She The HEartS project will gather new is the third RCM graduate to win the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize in empirical and qualitative data over the the last decade, following baritone in 2007 and tenor Ben next three years. Johnson in 2013. Nick Sears, Head of Vocal Studies at the RCM, said: ‘Louise is an exceptional artist in every respect and we are absolutely delighted that her contribution to the success of the competition was recognised by the general public. Louise was charming and gracious both on and off stage, and her astonishing talent was appreciated by all who were fortunate to witness her performances throughout the week. We are incredibly proud of her.’ This follows Louise’s success in the International Opera Awards 2017, where she was awarded the Young Singer of the Year Award on Sunday 7 May at the London Coliseum. The winners were selected by an international jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and critic with The Daily Telegraph.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 7 NEWS HARLEM QUARTET IN LATEST NEWS FOR Below Julien Van Mellaerts RESIDENCE EU STUDENTS

he Grammy award-winning Harlem Quartet he Royal College of Music has announced that T began its three-year RCM residency with a T applications for entry to the College in week of events and coaching sessions in May. September 2018 will open on 19 July. Since its public debut in 2006 at Carnegie Hall, The UK Government has confirmed that EU students the Harlem Quartet has performed throughout the applying for 2018 entry will be charged the same US and the world. Praised for its ‘panache’ by tuition fees as UK students, and will be eligible to The New York Times, the quartet’s mission is to apply for student loans and grants for the duration advance in classical music, engaging of their course. This means that students applying young and new audiences through the discovery to study at the RCM in September 2018 will be and presentation of varied repertoire that includes eligible to apply for the same funding and works by minority composers. support as current EU students and this eligibility will continue throughout their course, even if the As part of the residency, the group performed course concludes after the UK’s exit from the at the RCM’s annual Super String Sunday, for a European Union. special concert celebrating the 80th birthday of acclaimed RCM harp professor Marisa Robles, EU nationals will also remain eligible to apply for and was also involved in open rehearsals and Research Council PhD studentships at UK institutions coaching sessions with junior and senior students. for 2018 to 2019 to help cover costs for the The Royal College of Music is looking forward to duration of their study. welcoming the Harlem Quartet back this autumn. The RCM has a long tradition of welcoming The Harlem Quartet Residency is generously students from all over the world, in particular supported by Victoria, Lady Robey OBE. from our European neighbours. EU students play an essential role in College life and this will not change following the EU referendum. For the latest information visit www.rcm.ac.uk/ eureferendum

KATHLEEN FERRIER AWARDS

Royal College of Music performers have enjoyed success at this year’s Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Baritone Julien Van Mellaerts has won the prestigious competition’s First Prize following an outstanding performance in the Final at in April. Julien is a Fishmongers’ Company Scholar at the RCM International Opera School, supported by a Thomas Weinberger Award, and is studying with Russell Smythe. Accompanying Julien on piano was RCM alumnus Gamal Khamis, who studied with Niel Immelman, Simon Lepper, Ashley Wass and Andrew Ball. He won this year’s Accompanist’s Award, having previously accompanied alumna Kitty Whately’s First Prize-winning performance in 2011. Julien commented: ‘It was an amazing opportunity to sing at Wigmore Hall and to be honest I still can’t believe it all happened. I’m obviously over the moon and very excited about the next stage of my career. It was a real privilege to sing with Gamal, and I’m thrilled we both won.’

8 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 FEATURE AWARDING EXCELLENCE

For more than a century, talented students at the Royal College of Music have been recognised with special honours, and since 1943 these have been presented by The President of the College during the annual awards ceremony. From the gold medals established by an Indian musicologist to honorary bowls donated by the Royal Family, the list of receiving students reads like a who’s who of classical music. Upbeat takes a closer look at the history behind them…

Tagore Gold Medals Queen Elizabeth The Queen Tagore Gold Medal How did a 19th-century musicologist from India Mother Rosebowl end up donating to a newly opened music In 1985 the late Queen Mother, then President college in London? Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore of the RCM, endorsed a prize to recognise was passionate about music education, and this musical excellence in students who bring the extended beyond the subcontinent. He donated greatest credit to the College, through achieving collections of native instruments to various museums great success in performances and competitions in Europe and America, including the RCM, and because they ‘live out’ RCM values. The and established a gold medal to commemorate Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl the marriage of Their Majesties King George V was awarded for the first time to harpist Ieuan and Queen Mary. Until 1952 the medal was Jones (now an RCM harp professor) at the annual awarded to outstanding male and female students President’s Visit on 3 December 1985. Ieuan in alternate years. Now a medal is given annually was also awarded the Tagore Gold Medal, to each. and remains one of the very few students in RCM history to receive more than one award. The award has a truly ‘Albertopolis’ foundation. It Other outstanding winners include soprano was designed by Frank Bowcher, not only a much Sophie Bevan, violinist Benjamin Baker, bass admired and innovative designer of medals but Simon Shibambu baritone Simon Shibambu and composer a product of another South Kensington institution, Charlotte Harding. the National Art Training School (now the Royal College of Art). The Tagore Gold Medals are The President’s Award awarded to students who have contributed to the College community as a whole and helped In 2013 the President’s Visit was a particularly to create an environment from which others also special occasion, as HRH The Prince of Wales benefit. Composer and pianist Thomas Dunhill celebrated 20 years as RCM President by was the very first recipient in 1899, followed by endorsing a brand-new honour. He commissioned soprano Agnes Nicholls in 1900. The medals wood carver Tim Plunkett, who is based in Norfolk, have become an established part of RCM life, to carve a rosebowl from a piece of oak from His passing through the hands of some of its most Royal Highness’s Duchy of Cornwall Estate. renowned alumni including composer Herbert The President’s Award is given to a student who Howells, conductor Sir Neville Marriner, and has made an exceptional contribution to promoting singers Louise Alder and Jonathan Lemalu. the work of the College in the wider community. Percussionist Ruairi Glasheen, who worked with the RCM Sparks learning and participation programme during his time as a student, was the very first recipient. In the subsequent years he was followed by violinist Joo Yeon Sir, composer Arne Gieshoff, bassoonist Pedro Merchán Correas, and this year’s winner soprano Rowan Pierce.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 9 FEATURE WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Upbeat speaks to some of the RCM’s award winners who have gone on to make distinguished contributions to music nationally and beyond.

to show them yourself rather than telling them how IEUAN JONES to play something. Also, because I was a student here it definitely feels like my second home. I think the best HARP As a performer, what would you say way to inspire Tagore Gold Medal and Queen Elizabeth The are some of your standout concerts? Queen Mother Rosebowl, 1985 students is to One of the most memorable events during my actually go on to time as a student was at Exbury House, where I What was it like being the first recipient performed Ravel’s Introduction et allegro for HRH a concert platform of the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and I’ve also and perform. Mother Rosebowl? played a private evening concert for the Queen It feels like such a long time ago now, but it was Mother. You never forget those very special smaller Ieuan Jones a great experience. At the time we didn’t know events – the harp is so great at being intimate. anything about the award. I remember sitting in the What kind of repertoire do you play on concert hall and suddenly it was announced, and I the harp? immediately felt excited even though I didn’t really know what it was. It was a wonderful ending to I tend to do things that aren’t always expected. my College student years. About 30 years ago, when I’d just started my professional career, someone said to me ‘what on What did you enjoy most during your earth will you play?’ At the time I thought it was Find out more about Ieuan at time as a student? ridiculous because there is so much harp repertoire, www.ieuanjones.co.uk It was very enjoyable. Back then the harp but over the years I’ve understood the question a department was a fraction of what it is now, lot better. I now like to show what the harp can do with about three or four students, and I was able with transcriptions, particularly piano music such as to get involved with lots of orchestral projects. I Liszt and Schubert, because the quality of the music particularly recall the wonderful choral concerts, is different to a lot of traditional harp music. and conductor Christopher Adey telling me off a Is there anything you learnt as a few times! It’s all still very vivid in my memory. student that you regularly pass on to You’ve been a harp professor at the your own students? RCM for 20 years now – why did you One summer I went to study with Nicanor Zabaleta come back to teach? in Spain (whose music collection is here in the I think the best way to inspire students is to actually RCM library). He taught me to always study things go on to a concert platform and perform. It’s better at half speed, and I teach this to my students now. That’s my one golden rule!

Ieuan Jones You’ve recently been honoured with a Fellowship of the RCM – what did that mean to you? It meant a lot, and gave me the assurance that I was respected here, so I was hugely honoured and very privileged to accept it. During the ceremony, The Prince of Wales actually remembered when I received the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl and said to me ‘was it really that long ago since my grandmother gave you that award?’ That was a very special moment.

10 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 Charlotte Harding

CHARLOTTE HARDING COMPOSER Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl, 2012

You received the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Rosebowl in 2012 and composed two new fanfares for the awards ceremony – what was that experience like? It was incredible. I’d never written a fanfare before You’ve done a lot of community and but I knew I wanted to write something really outreach work – why do you think special for the occasion. They were performed at music has such a positive impact? the end of the ceremony, and a lot of my friends I think that music can be incredibly functional, I feel like the were in the ensemble with Simon Channing [Head and I’ve seen how it can visibly help people. I of Woodwind] conducting, so it was a lovely work with ‘Parkinson’s Can Dance’ at BalletBoyz RCM really prepared way to say goodbye to the College. I remember and with English National Ballet’s outreach receiving my award and walking out as slowly as me to be an all- programmes, and it’s amazing when you see the possible because I wanted to hear them! effect it has. It’s added a whole new dimension to round musician. Could you tell us about your latest the way I see music and how I create it. Charlotte Harding commission, Convo? How would you describe your It’s a collaboration between the Tri-borough Music compositional style? Hub, and RCM, so it’s great to It’s always changing and developing, but behind be able to come back to the College to work on every piece I always like to have a story. I studied the project. The piece will include an ensemble of with Mark-Anthony Turnage and in one of my young musicians and a massed chorus of school last lessons he said ‘you’ll learn to teach yourself’ Below pupils, and will premiere at the Royal Albert Hall which has become one of the best pieces of Charlotte Harding in 2019. I’ve already been blown away by how advice I’ve ever had. At the moment I’m writing a and Professor Colin committed everyone is to the project. new piece for BalletBoyz which will be performed Lawson CBE with the Queen Elizabeth So what inspired you to create this at Sadler’s Wells in October, and I’ll be working The Queen Mother work? with the British Paraorchestra in Bristol later this Rosebowl year. It’s great collaborating with other people Convo celebrates how music is one of the most because it takes you out of your musical comfort powerful forms of communication. It works zone. I think that’s what I enjoy the most, I love chronologically from our primal beginnings to the a challenge. technological state that we’re in now. I really want the participants to be at the centre of the piece, What advice would you give to current and I hope it can encourage them to see music as students? a way of expressing themselves and collaborating Be proactive and make the most of all the with each other. It’s going to be a fantastic incredible resources and opportunities that the challenge for me as a composer. College has to offer. The Creative Careers Centre was just fantastic – through them I was able to play jazz gigs and get involved with RCM Sparks. It’s a huge transition from being a student to being a professional, so having that constant support and knowing that you could go to them with questions was invaluable. I feel like the RCM really prepared me to be an all-round musician. It was a wonderful place to be.

To learn more about Charlotte’s projects, visit www.charlotteharding.org.uk

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 11 Katy Woolley

What did you enjoy most during your time at the RCM? I loved being surrounded by people who inspired me, not just from the Brass Faculty but musicians from all walks of life. I also really liked the fact that they were all better than me so I had something to aim for! The very relaxed atmosphere of College was just perfect because I could find my own space and do things in my own time, and Simon Rayner was an amazing teacher. He made the most beautiful horn sound and was so inspirational. I’ve got such happy memories of College.

What have been some of your most memorable performances? One of my favourite performances was playing R Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony in my final year at College with Bernard Haitink. When you’re playing with other students who are giving 100%, you can really feel how much everyone loves it and that they’re so grateful to be there. Working with one of the best living conductors and playing one of the most wonderful pieces for horn is definitely hard to beat. I was also lucky enough to play Mahler’s Symphony no 9 with Lorin Maazel, which KATY WOOLLEY felt like a little piece of heaven. Are there any projects coming up that HORN you’re particularly looking forward to? Tagore Gold Medal, 2012 I’m actually on sabbatical at the moment – I’ve just finished quite a few big projects, so I’m enjoying What did winning the Tagore Gold practising. That might sound really boring but it’s Medal mean to you? what I’m looking forward to!

I didn’t expect it at all, when I started College What advice would you give to current I never really thought about winning things, I students? just wanted to be good at playing the horn. So when I was recognised with the medal I was just I would say go on your own path, trust what you incredibly grateful and pleased, and it was a do well, find out what you don’t do well so you lovely way to finish College. can improve, and get as much inspiration as you can from everyone around you. Practice is quite Did you always know you wanted to be useful as well! a performer? Above Katy Woolley Music was always in my family, but I actually first performs during the started playing the cornet. Then when I was at 2012 President’s Visit school I found a horn in the cupboard, started to play, and it was love at first toot! Straight away I Opposite Ruairi Glasheen plays knew that was what I wanted to play. with RCM Sparks I loved being musicians during the You were appointed Principal Horn of 2013 President’s Visit the Philharmonia Orchestra at the age surrounded by people of 22 – what was that like? who inspired me. Strangely my main goal after College wasn’t to get a job instantly. I wanted to focus on being a good Katy Woolley player and training, so the post definitely came as a surprise, but I was absolutely delighted that I’d get to play those beautiful melodies that come with the Principal Horn position. The Philharmonia really complements my way of playing – as soon as I started I felt comfortable and everyone was so kind to me. As a young player you have to learn on the job and sometimes make mistakes, but they were all very generous about allowing me to do that.

12 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 Ruairi Glasheen

RUAIRI GLASHEEN PERCUSSION The President’s Award, 2013

Upbeat last spoke to you in 2013 after you received The President’s Award. Are you still doing a lot of education and outreach work? I am, yes. The projects that I’m involved with are a really important part of my work and my identity as a musician, and it was so great that this was recognised by the College with this award. I really believe in the power of music and the impact it can have on people, especially those who wouldn’t regularly participate in musical activity. This ranges from babies and school children to people living with dementia and all kinds of illnesses. I get to meet so many different individuals and that’s why I’m so interested in this kind of work, because it’s the people who really drew me to music in the first place.

Do you think this interest stemmed from What’s next for you in your career? your involvement in the RCM Sparks Something I’m really interested in at the moment programme? is the crossover between music and health and There are people at Absolutely, I remember going to the Creative wellbeing, particularly as I’m a percussionist and Careers Centre and asking to get involved, and drumming can have a really positive impact on the RCM who were so from that point onwards I was getting stuck in with people. Recently I contributed to a project with all the different things that Sparks were up to in the someone who had chronic stress, and she was instrumental in helping community. It really characterised my time at the discovering how drumming could help her manage me find my own voice. RCM because I met the most amazing people. it. There’s a lot of research happening in this field and I hope to continue to explore it. What performances and projects have Ruairi Glasheen you been working on recently? If you could give any advice to current I’m still playing with my folk group, Tir Eolas, students, what would it be? and with a number of other groups where I get I would say surround yourself with people who to experiment with different percussion setups support you, find out what really inspires you and and instrument combinations. But what’s really focus on what you are passionate about. There Find out more about Ruairi at been exciting for me since finishing College has are people at the RCM who were so instrumental www.ruairiglasheen.com been establishing and exploring my voice as a in helping me find my own voice, and particularly composer, as I’ve had the opportunity to travel the Creative Careers Centre. I’m always delighted and discover different kinds of music from around to come back and teach in the Junior Department, the world. lead Sparks workshops and talk to students, and I’m so happy to continue to have a relationship So would you say your musical style is with the College. quite folk-based? I’ve never thought of myself as being part of a particular musical genre, but I’m certainly influenced by different folk and world traditions that I’ve encountered. I’ve just been travelling in India, something that I’ve wanted to do for years, and I was able to study Carnatic music. Another style I want to explore is Persian music – I’m planning on visiting Iran soon as it has some of the most ancient musical traditions in the world.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 13 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 2016 and May 2017. Gifts are listed alphabetically in order of surname.

More Music The Headley Trust Supporters SUPPORTING Founding Patrons HEFCE Dr Kamal Ahuja & THE FUTURE ABRSM Help Musicians UK Anna Gustafson The Estate of George Frederick John Lewis Partnership ArtPoint Foundation OF MUSIC Burgan Kirby Laing Foundation BAE The Estate of Basil Coleman Philip Loubser Foundation The Biddy Baxter & From becoming an RCM Heritage Lottery Fund Sir Charles & Lady Mackerras John Hosier Trust Friend, through to leaving The Estate of Christopher The Estate of William Mealings Dr Linda Beeley a gift in your will, there are Hogwood CBE HonDMus Rosemary Millar HonRCM & Lord Black & Mark Bolland many ways you can support Kingdom Music Education Richard Millar Blenheim Music Circle the Royal College of Music. Group The Countess of Munster The Boltini Trust Rena & Sandro Lavery Musical Trust Bowerman Charitable Trust For more information, The Estate of Neville Wathen John Nickson & Simon Rew Anne Bradley please visit P F Charitable Trust Sir Roger & Lady Carr HonRCM www.rcm.ac.uk/ Leadership Supporters The Polonsky Foundation The Thomas Sirewright Catto supportus PRS for Music Foundation The Derek Butler Trust Charitable Settlement The Pure Land Foundation The Cayzer Trust Company Alternatively, contact the Philip Carne MBE HonRCM & The Reed Foundation & The Big Christine Carne Limited Development team on Give Christmas Challenge Dhairya & Karina Choudhrie 020 7591 4331 or The Estate of John & The Estate of Olive Gwendoline Marjorie Coultate Karen Cook [email protected] Rees The Foyle Foundation Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE Geoffrey Richards HonRCM & The Drapers’ Company The Future of Russia Foundation Valerie Richards The Garfield Weston Foundation The Gilbert & Eileen Edgar Sir Simon & Lady Robertson Foundation Linda Hill HonRCM & Victoria, Lady Robey OBE Dr Tony Hill Sir Vernon Ellis FRCM & The Estate of Barry Shaw Lady Ellis The Leverhulme Trust Dasha Shenkman OBE HonRCM The Mirfield Trust Lesley Ferguson Alethea Siow & Jeremy Furniss The Fishmongers’ Company The Julia & Hans Rausing Trust H R Taylor Trust The Estate of Michael Rimmer Fiona & Douglas Flint Dr Michael & Ruth West Finsbury The Estate of Emma Rose HonRCM Soirée d’Or Scholarships Dr Chris Gibson-Smith Bob & Sarah Wigley The Hon. Mrs Gilmour The Wolfson Foundation Major Supporters Elaine Greenberg & Linda Perez The Henry Wood Andrew Haigh Jane Barker CBE Accommodation Trust Helen Chung-Halpern Laurie Barry The Worshipful Company of & Abel Halpern In memory of Lady Chelmsford Musicians The Hobson Charity Meredith & Denis Coleman The Estate of Barbara Margaret Peter & Annette Dart Holt Gisela Gledhill Sir George Iacobescu CBE & The Harbour Foundation Lady Iacobescu

14 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 RCM FRIENDS SUMMER SPECIAL

Join the Royal College of Music as a Friend this summer and get £5 off your membership. For just £35* you will receive the following benefits for a year: • Priority booking and access to the best seats for all RCM concerts and opera productions • Invitations to an exclusive programme of RCM Friends events • Subscription to the termly RCM Events Guide and Upbeat magazine To become a Friend or for more information about the RCM Friends programme contact Rachel Bowden, Friends and Patrons Officer on 020 7591 4331 or email [email protected]

This offer is only available to new Friends and cannot be used to renew RCM Friends Membership. Please quote code ‘SUMMERSPECIAL17’. Offer valid until 31 August 2017. *Includes £5 summer special discount

Independent Opera at Sadler’s Kathleen Beryl Sleigh Charitable CIRCLES FOR Patrons’ Circle Wells Trust EXCELLENCE MEMBERS Isla Baring OAM JMC South Square Trust Jane Barker CBE Ruth Keattch St Paul’s, Knightsbridge Chairman’s Circle John & Halina Bennett The Estate of Michael Kennedy Steinway & Sons Brian & Janice Capstick Lady Bergman CBE Ian Stoutzker CBE FRCM Philip Carne MBE HonRCM & Sylvia Bettermann Nathenson The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Robert & Betty Sutherland Christine Carne Lorraine Buckland UK Tait Memorial Trust Helen Chung-Halpern & Tania Chislett The Honourable Society of the Ian & Meriel Tegner Abel Halpern Sir Anthony Cleaver FRCM & Knights of the Round Table Edmund Truell & Cédriane de Guy Dawson & Samantha Lady Cleaver Professor Colin Lawson CBE Boucaud Horscroft Elisabeth de Kergorlay FRCM Universal Music Group Gisela Gledhill Dr Ian & Janet Edmondson Lee Abbey London The Wall Trust Linda Hill HonRCM & Michael Estorick Carol & Geoff Lindey Sir Peter & Lady Walters Dr Tony Hill Sabina Fatkullina Natalie Livingstone Josef Weinberger Ltd Terry Hitchcock Professor Alice Gast Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Anthony Weldon FRCM & HSH Dr Prince Donatus von Marie Noelle & Mathias Gislev The Hon Richard Lyttelton & Jane Weldon Hohenzollern Lily & Julian Harriss Romilly Lyttelton The Mills Williams Foundation David James Greta Hemus The Mercers’ Company Jane Wilson Clare & James Kirkman John & Susan Heywood The Howard & Abby Milstein Professor Lord Winston & James & Margaret Lancaster William & AnnaMarie Hill Foundation Lady Winston Lark Insurance David & Sue Lewis Pro Musica Ltd WPP Dr Mark Levesley & Charles & Dominique Lubar The Estate of Billy Newman The Wyseliot Charitable Trust Christina Hoseason David Mildon Midori Nishiura HonRCM Victoria, Lady Robey OBE Ellen Moloney Humphrey Norrington OBE Roland Saam Jennifer Neelands FRCM & Frances Norrington Dasha Shenkman OBE HonRCM Susan Pudifoot-Stephens Opperby Stokowski Collection Alethea Siow & Jeremy Furniss Kara Radcliffe Trust Dr Michael & Ruth West Victoria Rock The Charles Peel Charitable Trust HonRCM Kerry & Dimity Rubie Michael Perry Quentin & Sarah Williams Sir Richard & Lady Sykes The Stanley Picker Charitable Louisa Treger Trust Rhoddy Voremberg Director’s Circle Rev Lyndon van de Pump FRCM John Ward & Edward Brooks FRCM Sir Peter & Lady Middleton Jane Wilson Andrew Ratcliffe FRCM Sir Robert & Lady Wilson The Estate of Charles Stewart John Nickson & Simon Rew Dr Yvonne Winkler Richardson Richard Price FRCM & Sue Price Christopher Saul Russell Race Professor Luigi & Elisabetta de Peter & Dimity Spiller Simone Niquesa Robert & Betty Sutherland Anne & Brian Wadsworth

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 15 STUDENT UPDATES STUDENT UPDATES

Award in the 2017 Young Scot Awards as part of VOCAL ACCOLADES her duo, The Ayoub Sisters, with her sister Sarah Below Top who plays the … Violinist Eunsley Park has The Laefer Quartet Soprano Charlotte Hoather and alumnus baritone Timothy Connor will perform in BambinO, a performed with pianist Maria Tarasewicz in the Park Lane Group Young Artists Spring Series 2017 Below Bottom new opera in collaboration with Scottish Opera, Jamal Aliyev and Manchester International Festival and Improbable. at St John’s Smith Square in April. They played Hyun-gi Lee with Sir The production aims to stimulate and engage with works by David Blake, George Crumb and Judith Karl Jenkins Nicola LeFanu babies, and takes place in Manchester, Weir, and alumna ’s Abstracts in a Katherine Raven and Glasgow this year… Counter tenor Feargal Frame… Violist ran the London Opposite Marathon in April, in aid of Breast Cancer Now, Emily Sun Mostyn-Williams, soprano Carly Owen and Emily Sun alumnae mezzo sopranos Polly Leech and Sinead raising over £400 in total… Violinist has O’Kelly have been announced as Young Artists been awarded First Prize in the 2017 Bromsgrove at the National Opera Studio for the 2017/18 International Musicians Competition. She won season… Tenor Richard Pinkstone and alumni a £6,000 cash prize and will perform at the Kitty Whately, Timothy Nelson and Catriona Three Choirs Festival, Bromsgrove Concerts and Hewitson will perform in Britten’s Albert Herring at Birmingham Conservatoire. The Grange Festival this summer with the Aurora Orchestra… Soprano Davidona Pittock has been awarded the Simon Fletcher Charitable Trust’s BRASS NEWS 2017 Pat Syme Award of £1,000… Tenor Joel Williams has won First Prize and bass baritone Trombonist Alec Coles-Aldridge has reviewed a Hugo Herman-Wilson has won the Audience Prize presentation on the pianist and composer André in the Somerset Song Prize 2017, which was held Tchaikowsky, which was given by Assistant Head in Taunton in May. of Undergraduate Programmes Dr Anastasia Belina-Johnson at Ognisko Polskie, London, in March. It’s available to read online at STRING SUCCESSES www.andretchaikowsky.com. Cellist Jamal Aliyev has been named as the winner of the third Arts Club – Sir Karl Jenkins Music WOODWIND EVENTS Award. Percussionist Hyun-gi Lee was the runner up and received a cash prize of £1,000. Jamal has Saxophonist Philip Attard, a member of the Laefer also been awarded First Prize in The Musicians’ Quartet with alumni Amy Green, Rusne Mikiskaite Company Prince’s Prize Competition 2017, and and Stephen Shepherd, has performed a new has been selected as a Young Classical Artists Trust work by alumna composer Charlotte Harding at St artist following the final auditions at Wigmore Hall John’s Smith Square as part of the Park Lane Group in May… Violinist Laura Ayoub has won the Arts Young Artists Spring Series 2017… Flautist Alenka Bogataj has won First Prize in the woodwind category in the ninth Svirél International Music Competition and Festival in Slovenia.

Composition Congratulations Tom Foskett-Barnes has completed a new audio- visual composition, MIDWAY, in collaboration with Sound and Music and filmmaker Marco Alessi. The project was part of his role as Composer in Residence with technology company ROLI… Piyawat Louilarpprasert has organised the first Taceti Music and Arts Organisation Saxophone and Composition Festival, held in Bangkok in April. Saxophonists Guillermo Presa and Sara Mendez

16 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 and composer Nathanael Gubler also took part, all students of RCM professor Dina Parakhina, leading masterclasses, workshops and lectures… have performed a complete cycle of Medtner’s Mauricio Loseto has been selected as a composer piano sonatas in the Rachmaninov Hall at Moscow for IRCAM’s project In Vivo Danse as part of Conservatory… Pianist Angela Lau has won the ManiFeste 2017. He has worked with Italian title of Woking Young Musician of the Year 2017 choreographer Alessandro Sciarroni, three other at the Woking Music Festival. She will perform with composers and 20 dancers… Ákos Lustyik has the Woking Symphony Orchestra and Southern Pro worked on the Hungarian short film Sing (Midenki) Musica in the coming season. as Composer Assistant. It won the Oscar for Live Action Short Film at the 89th Academy Awards in February… Richard Miller has written a new work, Nighthawks, which will be premiered by Ensemble DOCTORAL ACTIVITIES 10/10 as part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Raquel García Tomás has written a new opera, Orchestra’s 2017/18 season in October... Lara disPLACE, which received its Spanish premiere Poe has been announced as a winner of the 2017 in Barcelona and further performances at Teatro BMI Student Composer Awards, and was also Real in Madrid earlier this year… Barbara Gentili awarded the William Schuman Prize for the most has had an article published in Opera magazine, outstanding score… Pianist and composer Mateusz ‘Golden Age Voices – Barbara Gentili considers Rettner’s opera, Eurydice, was premiered in the a lost world of singing’… Edwin Hillier’s new Britten Theatre in May as part of the RCM’s Great work for cello and piano was premiered at Exhibitionists series. Soprano Julieth Lozano and Wigmore Hall in May by cellist Jamal Aliyev and two ensembles of current and former students, La pianist Maria Tarasewicz… Randall Scotting has Tache Ensemble and BLOCK4, performed in the presented a paper, ‘A Calculated Triumph: Farinelli, opera… Danny Ryan has been named as Second Handel, and the Misappropriation of the 1734 Runner-Up in the Emerging Category in the fifth Aria “Son qual nave”’ at the biennial American Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest. Handel Society Festival 2017, hosted by Princeton University in April. KEYBOARD ACCOMPLISHMENTS RCMJD RESULTS Pianists and Maria Kustas RCMJD composer Alexia Sloane and RCM alumna have won piano scholarships from the 2017 Dani Howard have been selected as winners Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship of Classic FM’s 25th Birthday Commissions Competition. Maria has also been given an competition. Their new works will be premiered at opportunity to play with the Milton Keynes special concerts and events throughout the year, Chamber Orchestra this season… Pianists Matthew recorded live and broadcast on Classic FM. Chan, Mario de la Cruz, Varvara Tarasova and Adam Taylor, and alumni Emily Hooker, Natsumi Ikenaga, Dinara Klinton and Poom Prommachart,

SHARE ROYAL OVER-SEAS LEAGUE YOUR NEWS Tell Upbeat readers about your COMPETITION recent successes by emailing [email protected] RCM piano duo Bertram Wee and Lynette Yeo have won the ROSL ARTS Strings and Piano Ensembles Prize at the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) Annual Music Competition 2017. The duo, who formed in 2013 during their first year as undergraduates at the College and have been playing together ever since, won the £10,000 prize with performances of Sciarrino’s Sonata per due pianoforti and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. Other RCM musicians who enjoyed success in the competition include bassoonist Justin Sun who won the Sussex Prize for Woodwind, alumnus Gamal Khamis who was awarded the Accompanist’s Prize, and mezzo soprano Ashlyn Tymms who was named Outstanding Australian Musician. ROSL ARTS is the arts division of the Royal Over-Seas League, and for over 50 years has developed a diverse portfolio of arts activities in Music, Visual Arts and Literature, devoted to the career development of talented young professional artists and musicians from the UK and the Commonwealth.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 17 STAFF UPDATES STAFF UPDATES

Assistant Head of Undergraduate Programmes Dr Double bass professors Caroline Emery and SHARE Anastasia Belina-Johnson has been selected to Gabriele Ragghianti were judges for the 2017 YOUR NEWS collaborate with the BBC, alongside four other International Society of Bassists Competition in the academics, on an ambitious project celebrating age 15–18 division. The competition was held in Tell Upbeat readers about your forgotten female composers. They will each June at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. recent successes by emailing choose a major, previously unrecorded work to [email protected] Research Fellow Daisy Fancourt has been be performed by the BBC Orchestras and Choirs chosen for the 2017 BBC New Generation and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on International Thinkers programme. Selected from hundreds of Women’s Day in March 2018. applications after a nationwide search for the best Violin professor Natalia Boyarsky was invited to academic ideas with the potential to be shared give a masterclass at the Strings through broadcast, she will have the opportunity to Festival at Saffron Hall in May, in partnership with make programmes for BBC radio and other outlets. the European String Teachers Association. Nicola Student Services Assistant Karina Fraser has joined Natalia during the masterclass to discuss the celebrated the tenth anniversary of her charity, physicality of playing. Forward 4 Wiz Trust, which works with young and Harpsichord professor Jane Chapman’s album, The aspiring musicians in the local community. The Oriental Miscellany – Airs of Hindustan, has won charity has recorded a new album with ten bands the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik Keyboard and artists, which was launched at a celebratory Instrument Award 2015. gig at Aldershot’s West End Centre in May. Concert and Venue Manager Katie Clay has RCMJD piano teacher Daniel Hill and alumnus been appointed Editor of Wagner News, the Dominic John, both former Junior Fellows and quarterly magazine of the Wagner Society. She students of retired professor John Barstow MBE welcomes submissions on performance reviews, FRCM, have given a rare performance of short academic offerings, or any other thoughts on Shostakovich’s Symphony no 10 in the composer’s Wagner for inclusion in the magazine – please own four-hand arrangement for piano. The contact [email protected]. concert took place in February in the RCM’s Inner Parry Room. Resident Luthier David Hume will be leaving the RCM at the end of July to begin a new life in New Zealand. David has worked at the College since Right 1992, teaching viola in the Junior Department, Dr Anastasia Belina-Johnson before setting up the string workshop in 2000. Deputy Head of Keyboard Ian Jones has Opposite Top Participants of The appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Barbed Lyre – Leaves Week series. The five-part programme focused on from the Isle of Man alumna Rebecca Clarke, one of the leading viola project players of her generation who also composed over 100 works. Opposite Bottom Professor Ashley Head of Keyboard Professor Vanessa Latarche has Solomon plays a given a masterclass in Astana, Kazakhstan, as part royal flute of the Astana Piano Passion Festival 2017. She has also given a masterclass at the second Lang Lang Shenzhen Futian International Piano Festival in China. Head of Postgraduate Programmes Dr Natasha Loges has appeared on a panel exploring Beethoven’s universal appeal, for BBC World Service’s The Forum series. The podcast is available to download on BBC iPlayer.

18 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 Head of Strings Mark Messenger ran the London Assistant Head of Strings Gary Ryan’s composition, Marathon for the tenth time in April, helping to Generator, was performed by the Vickers Bovey raise money for the Music in Hospitals charity, Guitar Duo at St John’s Smith Square in April, as and for RCM students who need funds to attend part of the Park Lane Group Young Artists Spring summer music courses and festivals. He has raised Series 2017. Also in this series was a work written over £3,700. by viola professor Simon Rowland-Jones for the Jacquin Trio, formed of RCMJD clarinet teacher Vocal professor Norbert Meyn’s project, The Jessie Grimes, piano alumna Charis Hanning and Barbed Lyre – Leaves from the Isle of Man, has violist Kay Stephen. been performed by Ensemble Émigré and RCM musicians at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in Chair and Head of Historical Performance London and on the Isle of Man. The programme Professor Ashley Solomon has recorded a new presented music and stories related to the disc of Telemann’s Fantasias for flute to celebrate internment of German and Austrian refugees on the the composer’s 250th anniversary. They were Isle of Man during the Second World War. performed on two instruments from 1760 – an ivory flute by the English maker Cahusac, and a Head of Composition William Mival has given porcelain flute by Meissen which once belonged a talk for the Leaders Performance Institute on to King George III. The Meissen flute is now part of emerging talent, as part of a Leaders Meet: Talent the Royal Collection. Pathways day in Manchester.

FAREWELL TO PETER HORTON

Deputy Librarian Peter Horton will retire from the Royal College of Music at the end of this academic year, after working in the library for nearly 34 years. When Peter started working in the Parry Room library in January 1984 his workplace was a small desk with a portable manual typewriter in a dusty book stack, in what is now the Inner Parry Room. Within 12 months the Parry Room library had combined with the lending library in its present home in the Blomfield Building, and the business of listing and cataloguing scores of manuscripts began. During his time at the RCM he has been instrumental in setting up the Restore a Score scheme and the Exploring the Archives concerts, as well as study days devoted to English composers and, in 2001, the biennial ‘Music in 19th-century Britain’ conference. After his retirement, he plans to continue researching music and musical life in 19th-century Britain.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 19 ALUMNI UPDATES ALUMNI UPDATES

Violinist Benjamin Baker has won Third Prize in the Neil Ferris has been appointed Chorus Director of Below 2017 Michael Hill International Violin Competition the BBC Symphony Chorus. He will be responsible Joo Yeon Sir in New Zealand. He performed Brahms’ Violin for steering its vocal and artistic development, and Concerto in the Grand Final held at Auckland Town his first project will be to prepare the ensemble for Opposite Top Hall, with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra its annual appearance at the First Night of the BBC Sofi Jeannin conducted by Giordano Bellincampi. Proms in July. Opposite Bottom Soprano Sophie Bevan will make her debut at the Michael Finnissy has been appointed Composer Tokio Myers Metropolitan Opera, New York, in October 2017. in Residence at St John’s College, Cambridge. She performs as Beatriz in Thomas Adès’ The He will work closely with St John’s College Exterminating Angel. Choir, writing four new anthems and five organ ‘reflections’ for the Organ Scholars, and will also Violinist Zoë Beyers has been appointed Leader of teach and give recitals. the English Symphony Orchestra and English String Orchestra. She will lead approximately half of the Composer Lillie Harris has written a work for ESO’s concerts, and will appear with the orchestra chamber choir for the second round of the Tenso regularly as both director and soloist. Young Composers Workshop 2016/17. She was also selected for the St Magnus Composers’ Sally Cavender has been awarded the Royal Course, which took place in the Orkney Islands in Philharmonic Society Leslie Boosey Award for her June with Alasdair Nicolson and Sally Beamish. outstanding contribution to British contemporary Lillie had the opportunity to write a new work for music. She is currently the Director of Performance The Assembly Project chamber ensemble. Music at Faber Music. Pianists David Helfgott and Rhodri Clarke Composer and doctoral graduate Steven Daverson have performed a concert of Chopin, Liszt and has been appointed Lecturer in Composition Rachmaninov at the Barbican Centre. The concert and Sonic Art at Brunel University London, and included Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no 3, Supervisory Tutor in Composition in the Music performed in its rarely heard version for two Faculty at the University of Cambridge. pianos. Simon Desorgher has created the world’s largest Composer Dani Howard has won First Prize in set of tubular bells, with the help of former RCMJD the first Breaking the Fourth Wall International teacher David Sutton-Anderson. They were played Composition Competition. Her winning piece, last year at Liverpool’s Albert Dock as part of the Ostara for piano, cello and clarinet, was Steam on the Dock festival, and in Rotherham by performed by the Craig Michael Davis Ensemble in former RCM professor Lawrence Casserley. The Bloomington, Indiana. bells have officially been recognised by Guinness World Records. Composer and pianist Johan Hugosson has released a new CD, Made in Sweden, a live Daniel Elms has been commissioned by The British soundtrack album of his most recent compositions Film Institute as part of the PRS Foundation’s New for piano, string quartet and percussion. It was Music Biennial Award 2017 to write a new piece, recorded for Swedish TV at Malmö’s Palladium Bethia, for the Hull UK City of Culture 2017. The concert hall. work celebrates the maritime history of Hull using reimagined sea shanties and folk music, and Sofi Jeannin has been appointed Chief Conductor will be performed at Hull Minster and Southbank of the BBC Singers, effective from July 2018. Centre this summer. Before taking up the role Sofi will conduct a number of performances in the UK, including a Composer and doctoral graduate Pedro ‘Reformation Day’ concert as part of the BBC Proms Faria Gomes has been appointed Lecturer in 2017, and a programme of Handel with St James’ Composition at Cardiff University. He teaches Baroque at Milton Court Concert Hall in May across the undergraduate and postgraduate 2018. programmes, in the areas of fugue, music analysis, research skills and composition. Violinist Haik Kazazyan and pianist Sergey Sobolev have won First Grand Prize, in the strings section and piano section, of the First Berliner International Music Competition 2017. Riyad Nicolas, Samson Tsoy and Michael Foyle were also awarded Golden Medals in the competition.

20 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 Composer and doctoral graduate Camilo Mendez Pianist Hin-Yat Tsang has been awarded Gold has been awarded a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Prize at the 16th International Piano Campus Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Pontoise Competition in Paris, and Second Prize at His research project is entitled ‘Reimagining the Maria Canals International Music Competition Musical Instruments: The Sound of Impossible in Barcelona. Both include substantial cash Objects in My Music’. prizes, and he will return to France and Spain for engagements in 2018. Harpist Anna Quiroga has been invited to perform at the 13th World Harp Congress in Hong Kong Violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen has performed with in July. The theme is ‘A Harp Journey from West her quartet, the Albion Quartet, at the TEDxLondon to East’ and this is the first time the event will take Confidence conference, which explored what place in Asia. being confident means in an uncertain world. Violinist Joo Yeon Sir has released her first CD, Michael Wolniakowski has been named Suites & Fantasies, on the Rubicon Classics label. Composer in Residence for the Oak Park Concert It includes a varied programme of suites and Chorale, and for the music department at Kansas fantasies by contrasting composers, including City Lutheran High School in the US. His sacred Schnittke, Britten, Milhaud and Gershwin. music was also performed in the 2017 London Festival of Contemporary Church Music held at Guitarist and composer Laura Snowden gave the various churches throughout London. world premiere of her new work for solo guitar, commissioned by the Park Lane Group as part of Violinist Nicholas Wright has been appointed its Young Artists Spring Series 2017, at St John’s Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Smith Square in April. Orchestra, having been a violinist with the orchestra for the last six years. His first major SHARE Tenor Andrew Staples and pianist Alisdair role was at the VSO’s Spring Festival – A British YOUR NEWS Hogarth have appeared on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, Fantasy, with performances of works by Elgar. ahead of performing at the Bath Festival in May. Tell Upbeat readers about your Saffron van Zwanenberg’s project Jackdaws: recent successes by emailing Alumna and former RCM Director of The Year of… has won the Best Classical Music [email protected] Communications Sue Sturrock has been appointed Education Initiative award at the 2017 Music President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians Teacher Awards for Excellence. Created for for 2017/18. She will lead the ISM at a critical Jackdaws Music Education Trust in her capacity as CONNECT time of great change, both within the music sector Artistic Director, this is the second consecutive year Connect with fellow RCM and in the broader national and international that one of Saffron’s projects has won this award. alumni in our LinkedIn group context. or contact the Alumni team on Composer Benjamin Tassie and flautist Carla [email protected] or Rees have taken part in ‘Baroque Remix’, a new 020 7591 4353. classical club night at experimental arts venue IKLECTIK in London. It featured live remixes of baroque music by Benjamin, and performances by Carla on baroque flute and Liam Byrne on viola da gamba.

BRITAIN’S

Pianist Tokio Myers has been crowned winner of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent competition. His unique take on Rag’n’Bone Man’s hit Human in the final wowed the public and judges Amanda Holden, , Simon Cowell and David Walliams. Tokio was a scholar and studied at the Royal College of Music with Yonty Solomon, one of the College’s most highly regarded piano professors. Yonty passed away in 2008, but Andrew Ball, former Head of Keyboard at the RCM, remembers auditioning Tokio. He said: ‘It was clear to me that he was talented from the very beginning. I’m pleased that we were able to provide him with an environment where he could hone his technique and study with Yonty, who was very fond of him.’ After leaving the RCM, Tokio went on to record and perform with his band, Mr Hudson and the Library. They produced an EP, hit single and an album, going on to support many high-profile artists on tour such as and . As part of Tokio’s prize he will perform at the Royal Variety Show on 24 November 2017.

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 21 IN MEMORY IN MEMORY

Kenneth Atkinson was born in Cleadon (now Pianist Ruth Loveday-Stanfield was born in Stoke South Tyneside) in 1931. After obtaining his Newington, London. She studied at Clapton ARCM in Singing Performance in April 1961, Ken County Secondary School, and in 1948 received enjoyed music making in many forms including a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where singing with the London Philharmonic Choir and she won the McEwen Piano Prize and met violinist as Musical Director of Ruislip Operatic Society. He Alan Loveday. They performed in many concerts had a distinguished and varied career within the together, including the Prague Spring International Civil Service until 1989 when he became Director Music Festival and an extensive tour of New of the ABTA Training Board, and then Managing Zealand and Australia. They married in 1952 Director of the Travel Training Company. Ken and had two children. Ruth was also a composer, became a Best Friend of the College in 2002 and and in the 1970s became a teacher of piano frequently donated to the annual Restore a Score and recorder, before retiring in 2014. She died in appeal. Ken died in February 2017. March 2017, aged 86.

Pianist Patricia Carroll FRCM studied at the Blanche Mundlak LEAVING A RCM Junior Department before joining the Senior College aged 16 in 1948, where she was taught LEGACY by Arthur Alexander. Patricia had an astounding musical career spanning 70 years – in October The Royal College of Music 1952 she was the first female concert pianist to would like to thank all those play at the newly opened Royal Festival Hall, who have remembered the performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no 2 RCM in their will and left with the London Symphony Orchestra. Patricia a musical legacy for future also taught at the RCM for 37 years, and in generations to enjoy. 1997 received an FRCM in lieu of her tremendous For more information on leaving contribution to music and the College. She died in a legacy to the RCM, please June 2017. contact Louise Birrell on 020 7591 4743 or [email protected] Organist James Dalton was born on 11 November 1930. He studied with George Blanche Mundlak came to London as a Jewish Thalben-Ball and Ralph Downes at the Royal immigrant when she was a child. She became a College of Music. He was an organ scholar at talented violinist and went on to study at the Royal Worcester College, Oxford, organist of Wesleyan College of Music; she was most proud of her University, Connecticut, and organist and Fellow connection to the RCM, which always retained a of The Queen’s College, Oxford. James gave strong place in her heart. She found work first as many recitals across Europe and in the US. He a violin teacher and then as the proprietor of the made a number of recordings, took part in frequent St Cecilia music shop in Camden. Blanche was broadcasts, and acted as the series editor of also the founder of the Orion Orchestra, which she the Faber Early Organ Series: European Organ conducted for 37 years without missing a single Music of the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries rehearsal. She raised large amounts of money for (1986–88). James died on 20 April 2017. charity through the orchestra, which gave early concerto opportunities to many leading musicians. She was a formidable member of the local Pat ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick was originally from Belfast Conservative party, well-known for her forthright and received a scholarship to study at the Royal views. Blanche died in February 2017. College of Music. He was a much-loved pianist and keyboardist who performed in and founded many Irish rock bands from the early 1980s. Pat was also a fixture at RTÉ for many years as an arranger and performer. He died in April 2017, aged 60.

22 UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 COMING SOON

Thursday 26 October 2017 RCM Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall 7.30pm | Royal Festival Hall

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor Daniel Kharitonov piano RCM Symphony Orchestra Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no 1 Kabalevsky The Comedians suite op 26 Shostakovich Symphony no 1

The RCM Symphony Orchestra returns to London’s Royal Festival Hall to perform an all-Russian programme under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy, in the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

‘My music is a product of my temperament and so it is Russian music.’ So said Rachmaninov of his compositional style, whose First Piano Concerto reflects all the youthful freshness of a student composer. Similarly written whilst studying, Shostakovich’s symphonic masterpiece arguably remains one of the finest first symphonies ever composed, gaining worldwide recognition after its premiere.

Performed alongside these works is Kabalevsky’s The Comedians suite. Kabalevsky focused on writing lighter music for children – his playful and mischievous suite portrays a whimsical group of travelling entertainers.

Part of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Voices of Revolution: Russia 1917 series.

Tickets: £5, £10, £15, £20, £25 RCM Box Office: 020 7591 4314 www.rcm.ac.uk/events

UPBEAT SUMMER 2017 23 ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC

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Specialist careers guidance Prince Consort Road London SW7 2BS from our pioneering Creative Careers Centre United Kingdom ns open 19 July +44(0)20 7591 4300 Applications for entry to the Royal College [email protected] of Music in September 2018 will open on 19 July 2017. www.rcm.ac.uk www.rcm.ac.uk/apply

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Alumni: 020 7591 4353 [email protected]

Supporting the RCM: 020 7591 4331 [email protected]

Hiring RCM musicians: 020 7591 4367 [email protected]

The Royal College of Music is a registered charity. No 309268

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