Royal College of Music - Definition and Overview

The Royal College of Music from Prince Consort Road, London

The Royal College of Music is one of the most prestigious music schools in the world. It is located in Kensington, London.

Founded in 1882 as a successor to the National Training School for Music by the then-Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), the school opened in 1883 with George Grove as its director. It moved to its present location in the Albertopolis cultural quarter, next to Imperial College, London and opposite the Royal Albert Hall in 1894. In the same year Hubert Parry became director, remaining until 1918.

The college teaches all aspects of western classical music from undergraduate to doctorate level. It also has an extensive museum of musical instruments which is open to the public.

The front facade of the RCM

Famous students of the RCM have included:

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), composer
• Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), composer
• Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor
• George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), composer
• Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975), composer
• Eugène Goossens (1893 - 1962), conductor
• Noel Gay (1898 - 1954), songwriter
• Constant Lambert (1905 - 1951), composer
• Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer
• Peter Pears (1910 - 1986), singer
• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), composer
• Charles Groves (1915 - 1992), conductor
• Neville Marriner (born 1924), conductor
• Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer
• Colin Davis (born 1927), conductor
• Julian Bream (born 1933), guitarist and lutenist
• James Galway (born 1939), flautist
• John Williams (born 1941), guitarist
• Thomas Allen (born 1944), singer
• Andrew Davis (born 1944), conductor
• John Lill (born 1944), pianist
• Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer

See also:

• Chetham's School of Music
• Royal Academy of Music

The Royal College of Music also teaches beyond undergraduate and post-graduate level in a thriving Junior Department with over 800 students aged 10-18 learning all instruments, singing, composing and performing in the many excellent ensembles and orchestras. There is also a highly successful Summer School where 30 hand-picked young people from around the country converge for a week of intensive training with RCM professor of percussion Kevin Hathway, composer Cameron Sinclair, history and musicianship lecturer David Graham, RCM student mentors and actors from acclaimed theatre company Complicité. Plans are afoot to extend the scope of the Summer School inviting many more people through its doors. EXTERNAL LINK

Royal College of Music (http://www.rcm.ac.uk)