Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatory in London where young people can study music. It was founded in 1882. Many musicians who became famous studied music at the Royal College of Music.
The Royal College of Music was founded by Royal charter. The president was the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). The president has always been a member of the royal family. The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry. The first building was opposite the west side to the Royal Albert Hall, but in 1894 the RCM moved to a larger building south of the Royal Albert Hall on Prince Consort Road. The College is still there, but there have been many extensions and improvements to the building since then.
There are about 520 students at the RCM. About 170 of these are post-graduate students. The college can award degrees and diplomas in music. Composers and performing musicians can study there. There is a large museum of musical instruments. Next to the main building is a 400-seater opera house, the Britten Theatre, opened in 1986. There are now over 600 students from about 50 countries.
The director of the Royal College of Music is Dr Colin Lawson.
Some famous people who studied at the Royal College of Music
- Thomas Allen (born 1944), singer
- Julian Anderson (born 1967), composer
- Malcolm Arnold (1921 - 2006), composer
- Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975), composer
- Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), composer
- Julian Bream (born 1933), guitarist and lutenist
- Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), composer
- George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), composer
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), composer
- Thurston Dart (1921 - 1971), performer and musicologist
- Andrew Davis (born 1944), conductor
- Colin Davis (born 1927), conductor
- James Galway (born 1939), flautist
- Eugène Goossens (1893 - 1962), conductor
- Charles Groves (1915 - 1992), conductor
- David Helfgott (born 1947), pianist
- Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), composer
- Herbert Howells (1892-1983), composer
- John Ireland (1879 - 1962), composer and pianist
- Dame Gwyneth Jones (born 1936), Wagnerian soprano
- Thea King (1925-2007), clarinetist
- Constant Lambert (1905 - 1951), composer and critic
- John Lill (born 1944), pianist
- Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916), composer and conductor
- Neville Marriner (born 1924), conductor
- Francis Monkman (born 1949), rock, classical and film score composer
- Peter Pears (1910 - 1986), singer
- Trevor Pinnock (born 1946), harpsichordist and conductor
- Edmundo Ros (1910—2011), band leader
- Cyril Smith (1909 - 1974), pianist
- Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor
- Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer
- Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer
- Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 1960), composer
- Fanny Waterman (born 1920), founder, chairman and artistic director of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition musician
- Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer
- Julian Lloyd Webber (born 1951), cellist
- William Lloyd Webber (1914 - 1982), composer
- Gillian Weir (born 1941), internationally-renowned organist
- John Williams (born 1941), guitarist
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), composer
Royal College Of Music Media
Other websites
- Royal College of Music website Archived 2007-09-01 at the Wayback Machine