020 7591 4314 – WWW.RCM.AC.UK 1 Highlights AUTUMN Participatory Events Lectures & Seminars EVENTS Masterclasses & Workshops Special Events 2015 Chamber Music Series 020 7591 4314 www.rcm.ac.uk 2 CONTENTS Events Guide Autumn Season 2015 Listings for September – December Diary 4 Out and About 29 Ticket & Booking Information 30 Visiting Us 31 Supporting Us 32 In Brief 33 Diary events are colour coded for easy referencing H Highlights PE Participatory Events LS Lectures & Seminars MW Masterclasses & Workshops SE Special Events CS Chamber Music Series IP Independent Promotions Box Office – Ticketed event See page 30 for details or call 020 7591 4314. Junior Department events. Please call the Junior Department on 020 7591 4345 for more details. RCM Sparks and the Royal Albert Hall work in partnership to deliver innovative learning and participation opportunities for all ages. This unique combination of education expertise and diverse concert programming offers exciting and engaging activities for all and gives access to two iconic institutions. See www.rcm.ac.uk/sparks for further details. The RCM is grateful to the Royal Garden Hotel for its generous support of the RCM’s visiting International Conductors Programme. All public performances in the RCM Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall and the Britten Theatre operate under rules of management for places of entertainment issued by Westminster City Council. All information in this publication was correct at time of going to print. The Royal College of Music is a registered charity. No. 309268 Cover images © Monika Rittershaus and Chris Christodoulou General photography © Chris Christodoulou 020 7591 4314 – www.rcm.ac.uk 3 WELCOME TO A NEW AUTUMN SEASON AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC This autumn, we celebrate the unequalled tradition of composition at the RCM with RCM Composers Week. Works by RCM professors Mark-Anthony Turnage, Dai Fujikura, Simon Holt, William Mival and Jonathan Cole are featured in performances by the New Perspectives ensemble, our long-running From the Soundhouse series and a special lunchtime concert. You can also hear works from earlier generations, including Stanford, Tippett and Vaughan Williams, as well as from current students. Our new orchestral series – Orchestral Masterworks – is launched in September. With the emphasis on the most important works of the repertoire, there are chances to hear Brahms’ Symphony no 1, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Nutcracker Suite. We are also delighted to welcome the dynamic conductor Juraj Valcˇuha for Mahler’s final completed symphony, no 9, while the RCM Chorus and Symphony Orchestra visit the world of Italian opera in a programme of Rossini and Verdi, with Puccini’s youthful and exuberant Messa di Gloria. We are pleased to welcome back English Touring Opera for a residency featuring three classics of the opera repertory – Pelléas et Mélisande, Werther, and The Tales of Hoffmann. A new partnership opens, too, as members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe work alongside our students in a study and performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no 2. There are masterclasses from John Lill, Sarah Connolly, Maxim Rysanov and Berlin Philharmonic Principal Horn Stefan Dohr; the ninth International Festival of Viols with guest Christophe Coin; and the RCM Big Band pays tribute to Eddie Harvey and Will Michael. Our Chamber Essentials series continues with classics by Haydn and Mozart, and, beyond the concert stage, we launch a new series of talks, Music and Ideas. To complete the season, we present two unmissable events – a performance of William Walton’s Façade with Sir Thomas Allen and Sally Burgess, and Johann Strauss’ hilarious musical comedy, Die Fledermaus. We look forward to welcoming you. Stephen Johns | Artistic Director 4 DIARY SUNDAY 6 SEPTEMBER S E Vocal Faculty Open Door 11.00am Various locations Our annual Vocal Faculty Open Door gives prospective students the ideal opportunity to sing in front of RCM vocal professors and receive invaluable feedback and advice in a supportive environment. See Trio Apaches © Patrick Allen www.rcm.ac.uk/opendoor for more information. Tickets: £25 Professors’ Concerts WEDNESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER Join us for a series of free concerts featuring performances by RCM professors and ensembles in association. Professors’ Concerts: Florilegium Free but tickets required 8.30pm Britten Theatre See left panel for details WEDNESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER Florilegium THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 8.30pm Britten Theatre IP John Danyel and Samuel Florilegium RCM Ensemble in Association Daniel: An Evening of Music Telemann Quartet in G major TWV 43:G2 and Poetry Vivaldi Concerto in G minor RV 107 5.30pm Britten Theatre Quintet in D major op 22 no 1 J C Bach Sam Brown leader Concerto in A minor TWV 43:a3 Telemann James Wallace staged readings Part of the COST conference at the RCM, 9-10 September. director Visit www.rcm.ac.uk/costconference for further details. John Pitcher and Yasmin Arshad producers THURSDAY 17 SEPTEMBER John Danyel was among the first rank of Elizabethan composers, RCM String Professors his brother Samuel Daniel a 1.05pm Britten Theatre considerable poet. This is the first performance looking at the brothers’ Gabrielle Lester violin work collaboratively. Readings are Mark Messenger violin in association with Globe Education, Jonathan Barritt viola and by the Dolphin’s Back Company. Simon Rowland-Jones viola Thomas Carroll cello Part of the Samuel Daniel, Poet and Mozart String Quintet in G minor K 516 Historian conference An independent promotion FRIDAY 6 NOVEMBER Tickets: £15, £8 (UCL, Oxford, Trio Apaches & RCM students) 1.05pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Trio Apaches RCM Piano Trio in Association Beethoven Allegretto in B flat major WoO 39 Beethoven (arr Hummel) Symphony no 7 in A major op 92 020 7591 4314 – www.rcm.ac.uk 5 TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER Horn Masterclass with © Monika Rittershaus Stefan Dohr 10.00am Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall We’re delighted to welcome Principal Horn with the Berlin Philharmonic Stefan Dohr, one of the most sought-after brass performers in the world. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to hear our new Visiting Professor work with talented RCM horn players. Free but tickets required Stefan Dohr WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER Vocal Masterclass with Horn Masterclass with RCM Prize Winners Sarah Connolly Stefan Dohr 1.05pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall 2.00pm Britten Theatre 10.00am Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall This lunchtime concert series Renowned mezzo soprano and RCM See panel above for details showcases the best of the best: alumna Sarah Connolly returns to winners of the RCM’s major prizes the Britten Theatre to work with in a number of solo recitals. Find some of the very best RCM singers. Viola Masterclass with out more at www.rcm.ac.uk/ Jennifer Stumm bestofthebest. Tickets: £5 10.00am East Parry Room Supported by the Georg and Emily Free no tickets required von Opel Foundation THURSDAY 17 SEPTEMBER Free but tickets required WEDNESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER Professors’ Concerts: RCM String Professors Orchestral Masterworks: 1.05pm Britten Theatre Beethoven and Wagner 6.00pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall See page 4 for details See page 18 for details MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER RCM Prize Winners 1.05pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Trumpet Masterclass with Gareth Small This lunchtime concert series 2.00pm East Parry Room showcases the best of the best: winners of the RCM’s major prizes Free but tickets required in a number of solo recitals. Find out more at www.rcm.ac.uk/ bestofthebest. Free no tickets required 6 DIARY © Dutch National Archives FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER explorensemble 7.30pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall Nicholas Moroz and Arne Gieshoff directors explorensemble Feldman piano violin viola cello Join members of explorensemble for a rare opportunity to hear Morton Feldman’s last composition piano violin viola cello. Completed a few months before his death in 1987, the captivating piece is a masterwork of the composer’s late period, with slowly unfurling tapestries of intimate sounds. Tickets: £5 Morton Feldman THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER MONDAY 5 OCTOBER Music and Ideas: Ownership Music in the Museum RCM Prize Winners – Whose Score is it Anyway? 1.15pm RCM Museum of Music 1.05pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall 5.15pm Recital Hall Free but tickets required This lunchtime concert series Is the published score the final showcases the best of the best: version? Leading practitioner winners of the RCM’s major prizes Professor Peter Wiegold (Institute English Touring Opera: in a number of solo recitals. Find of Composing & Brunel University Werther out more at www.rcm.ac.uk/ London) discusses this conundrum 7.30pm Britten Theatre bestofthebest. through his own work including See page 7 for details live performances with his ‘notes Free no tickets required inégales’ colleagues: Hyelim Kim (Korean taeguˇm transverse flute) explorensemble RCM Chamber Music and Joel Bell (electric guitar). 7.30pm Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall 6.00pm Inner Parry Room See panel above for details Free but tickets required Free but tickets required English Touring Opera: SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER Pelléas et Mélisande 7.30pm Britten Theatre English Touring Opera: Pelléas et Mélisande See page 7 for details 7.30pm Britten Theatre See page 7 for details RCM Students’ Film Orchestra 7.30pm Britten Theatre The RCM Students’ Film Orchestra performs music from film classics such as The Sea Hawk and Back to the Future, as well as paying tribute to James Horner. Presented by the RCM Students’ Union Free but tickets required 020 7591 4314 – www.rcm.ac.uk 7 English Touring Opera 7.30pm Britten Theatre After successful Baroque productions in 2009, 2011 and 2013, English Touring Opera returns to the RCM’s Britten Theatre with a new and exciting proposition – three of the very best French operas, with compelling dramas and all told on an intimate scale.