Fanfare magazine spring 2018

fanfare

Fanfare ~ the magazine for Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Reg Charity No. 1067676

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association is a voluntary organisation supporting the work of the students at the Conservatoire.

New building special issue Spring 2018

Birmingham City University

Welcome to the Spring 2018 edition of Fanfare Magazine Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has now enjoyed six months in its magnificent new home, so it is a fitting moment for Fanfare to focus on the building itself and to reflect on the momentous changes the move has brought to the institution.

conductor Sir Adrian Boult, it also pays homage to the Conservatoire’s history and to our previous building’s Adrian Boult Hall, which became a much loved concert hall for the city and beyond.

Professor Julian Lloyd Webber Principal, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

It has proved to be a remarkably smooth transition into an extraordinarily complex new building; Architects Feilden Clegg Bradley and builders Galliford Try deserve huge credit for this. I well remember digging the first turf for the new building soon after I arrived as Principal in July 2015. That the new building was ‘up and running’ and ready to open its doors to our students barely two years later is an extraordinary testament to the skill and professionalism of both companies – especially when compared to the speed at which most major constructions move in the UK! If anything the new building has exceeded our expectations – particularly in regard to the acoustics in all five performance venues. These were meticulously prepared by acoustician Michael Whitcroft who fully deserves the plaudits that are beginning to flow in.

I am also delighted that we have introduced ‘Boult’s Bar and Restaurant’ for students, staff and general public alike. Named after the renowned British

Tom Bird

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Inside 2 | Welcome

16 | A dual perspective

3 | Message from RBCA Chair

18 | Alumni News

4 | Showcase images of the new building

20 | Conservatoire News

6 | The Architect’s vision

23 | RBCA News

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24 | A hub of education and community music

8 Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition

27 | Opening Festival

10 | Eastside Jazz Club 12 | Living the reality of a digital conservatoire

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13 Becoming the destination of choice for organists 14 | A continuing student’s perspective 15 | A Head of Department’s perspective

2 Cover image by Tom Bird

RBCA team

Message from the RBCA Chair I am delighted to announce that in January the Charity Commission confirmed the change of title of the Birmingham Conservatoire Association to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association. Many thanks go to Honorary Secretary, John Smith, for his work with the Charity Commission.

Thank you all so much, as RBCA Members, for your continuing support for the Association with your subscriptions and donations, which have allowed the Trustees to increase the funds available for this year’s awards. At the Board Meeting in February, RBCA Trustees awarded £4,865 in total to six current students in need of financial assistance and to three students for the prestigious CBSO Learning and Participation Scheme. £800, donated in memory of Emeritus Founder Member Peter Ward, who was a fine pianist, was included in the total funds distributed, and awarded to a piano student.

As a result of the new Data Protection Regulations coming into force in May 2018, a form has been included with your Fanfare magazine for you to confirm your contact details and communication preferences. Please complete this form and return it in the envelope provided to the Conservatoire by May 25th so that you can continue to receive your copy of Fanfare and enjoy the benefits of being a member of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association.

Keep sending details of your activities for inclusion in Fanfare’s RBCA News to RBCA Honorary Secretary, John Smith: T: 0121 476 4741, E: johnsmithhrs359@gmail.com I wish you every success with your events and projects in 2018.

Rosemary Phillips RBCA Chair of Trustees

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THE CONSERVATOI Images by ©Tom Bird and ©Hufton + Crow

Eastside Jazz Club

4 Foyer/Boult’s Bar & Restaurant

OIRE OF THE FUTURE

Organ Studio

Recording Studio

Concert Hall

5 The Lab

Workshop space

The Architect’s vision Colin Cobb, Associate at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, architects of the new Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, describes the challenges met and solutions found in designing the building.

A vision of sound

The building’s external appearance reflects a sense of timelessness, robustness and rhythm, while simultaneously providing the mass and solidity required to provide excellent acoustic insulation from external noise. This massive form is carved away at entrances and foyer spaces to open up the building to the public and the landscape.

A conservatoire is a unique type of building in many ways, and so the task of designing and constructing the new Royal Birmingham Conservatoire building was both fascinating and challenging in equal measure.

A conservatoire is much more than just a performance venue, and much more than just a university teaching building. It combines the extroverted nature of a public performance venue with the intense, private world of dedicated learning and practice. The building was designed to bring these things together to give students the skills and experience they need to become world class performers, and to give the city a unique new series of musical venues that would reinvigorate public engagement with music.

One of the unusual characteristics of a conservatoire is that it is a place for making lots of different music at the same time, and also for collaboration between many different disciplines. So in this respect one of the central design challenges was the careful arrangement of spaces and departments to ensure that very loud spaces were not placed too near to very quiet and sensitive spaces, but also that complementary departments were placed as near to each other as possible. Sometimes these two forces conflicted and compromises were necessary, with good acoustic separation generally taking priority.

The building was designed to express its purpose outwardly to the city by welcoming the public into a warm and generous foyer, which connects the five major performance venues with a rich and sociable environment. It horizontally links the street with the landscape of the university campus, and vertically connects the lower ground venues to the second floor concert hall, providing social spaces along the way for visitors and students alike.

The first organising principle was to place the main venues on the south side of the building, away from traffic noise, and in the lower part of the building for easy access by the public. The compact site meant that all five venues could not fit on the ground floor, so it was necessary to stack venues on top of each other. Each venue has its own

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Hufton + Crow

“One of the unusual characteristics of a conservatoire is that it is a place for making lots of different music at the same time” independent steel frame sitting on rubber isolating feet, which nest inside each other like Russian dolls, never touching, to ensure no transfer of sound between venues.

This is so effective that you could have Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture happening in one hall and John Cage’s 4’33 in another, and you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Hufton + Crow

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Other larger spaces such as chamber music rooms and lecture spaces were placed on the ground floor, taking advantage of tall ceilings and easy access from the foyers, enabling them to be used for larger group teaching and publicly accessible events.

In the upper floors of the building there are nearly 100 teaching and practice rooms, arranged around the musical departments and formed in clusters on the north side of the building, grouping louder instrument spaces away from quieter ones. These rooms will be heavily used by students for up to 16 hours a day, so they are designed to be calm and neutral to allow the character of the music to take precedence, with natural light in as many as possible and hard wearing but elegant finishes.

Hufton + Crow

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Finally, a dedicated suite of recording studios occupies a special corner of the fourth floor, with extra ceiling height, enhanced acoustic separation and full connectivity to venues and recording spaces. These studios can be used to record audio from any of the venues, teaching rooms or practice rooms in the building through a state of the art analogue and digital audio network, creating a truly digital conservatoire.

Returning to the five performance venues, the most interesting aspect of their design was the need to create five separate, particular and distinct characters, both acoustically and visually. Each venue had particular acoustic performance parameters to suit their musical programme, and we worked closely with Hoare Lea Acoustics to create forms and finishes which would achieve the right reverberation time and sound field quality. At the same time we worked with the Conservatoire to understand the atmosphere and appearance that would complement the scale and musical feel of each space. The colours, finishes, furniture and lighting were then chosen to complement this atmosphere.

Hufton + Crow

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The result is a range of diverse spaces offering everything from the light and reverberant Organ Studio, the black box Lab space with its tightly controlled acoustic, the intimate and atmospheric Eastside Jazz Club, through to the Recital and Concert Halls, a pair of warm, rich and high quality auditoria with the acoustic flexibility to accommodate orchestral rehearsals and performances, and also music for amplified voices and instruments.

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is, above all, a place of education and performance, for students, professionals and locals to come together to share experience, knowledge and music.

Colin Cobb Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios 7

Off to a fine start – Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition and Festival 2017 With the paint barely dry, the stunning new Royal Birmingham Conservatoire performed a miraculous feat in hosting the second Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition and Festival from 18-24 November 2017. The event celebrates the life and contribution of South African violist Cecil Aronowitz.

After an initial 70 DVD applications a total of 30 semifinalists were selected to play in the live rounds at the RBC. A further five withdrawals brought the final figure down to 25 semi-finalist competitors, all aged 21 years and under, travelling to Birmingham. Some were even accompanied by their teachers and families.

The internationally renowned jury were treated to a veritable feast of brilliant young talent. Each of the 25 competitors played in two full rounds before the numbers were whittled down to just five, who were chosen to perform with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra in the Final Round. They performed a superb programme of music, including one Bartok, two Hindemith and two Walton Concerti.

Mabon Rhyd, Candian Li and Harry Broom for their incredible photography, videography and stubbornness, ensuring that the live reporting and streaming functioned, and brought this event to those who could not be with us in person.

The event doubled as a festival, with almost 70 individual master classes delivered by jury members Thomas Selditz, Ettore Causa, Thomas Riebl , Robin Ireland and visiting viola gurus Timothy Ridout (winner of the first Cecil Aronowitz International Competition, 2014), Gary Pomeroy, Matthew Jones, Martin Outram and Roger Chase. These classes ran throughout the week and offered opportunities to young violists from schools across the UK, Junior and Senior Conservatoires and students from Estonia, Finland, Spain and elsewhere in Europe. Brilliant workshops for children of all levels were delivered by the Absolute Zero Viola Quartet, Lucy Nolan and Gary Pomeroy, even offering the opportunity for some violinists to try out the viola for the very first time!!

Thanks to Cardiff Violins for supplying the mountain of violas for us to distribute.

Rehearsal schedules for the semi-finalists with pianists Caroline Dowdle, Anthony Hewitt and Sophia Rahman, and violinists Caroline Pether and Eva Thorarinsdottir for Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, were masterfully organised by Eileen Smith, coordinator and administrator of the competition. The competition had an exceptional following on social media, with the first two rounds livestreamed from the Cecil Aronowitz Competition Facebook page. It was broadcast by The Violin Channel and shared

by Classic FM. I think we had around 140,000 views!

Congratulations to RBC students Alistair Rutherford,

Dr Louise Lansdown Head of Strings

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Alistair with Njabulo, Kwanda and Mbali

ARCO exchange In addition to these multi layered viola activities we were privileged to be able to welcome three of our ARCO Project students from Soweto, Njabulo Nxumalo (17), Kwanda Buthelezi (13) and Mbali Phato (12), to take part in the festival.

Njabulo Nxumalo has been my ARCO student since the very beginning of the project in 2015. We have built a strong foundation and learning environment through the weekly Skype lessons and two wonderful ARCO festivals in Soweto during the South African winters of 2016 and 2017. However, in truth, we were totally dancing in the dark with the exchange. So far, from my perspective, ARCO has existed in the slightly removed context of Skype teaching and the two ARCO festivals.

No one involved, including myself, the students and Louise, foresaw the totally life changing two weeks that the ARCO exchange entailed; they were a total whirlwind.

Just a matter of hours after the students landed at Birmingham International airport, ARCO took the spotlight, opening the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition. It was an honour to show the hard work of our prize-winners to our many supporters.

From my perspective the concert was one of those moments in life that will never leave me – seeing all three students command the stage in the music institution that has shaped me as a person over the past four years.

There were hundreds of moments that inspired my student Njabulo, many shared by his colleagues Kwanda and Mbali. Some highlights include master-classes with notable violinists Oliver Wille, Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Jonathan Martindale, seeing so many different concerts across both Liverpool and Birmingham, and, of course, seeing the mighty Liverpool FC in action at Anfield!

Njabulo was totally mind-blown by all of the incredible opportunities presented.

I was also awe-struck by the inspirational music making, the camaraderie of the strings department of the Conservatoire, and the opportunity to really inspire our visitors from Soweto. Let this be a true example of the spirit music making and teaching can create!

Alistair Rutherford 9

The birth of an international jazz venue – Our Eastside Jazz Club Eastside Jazz Club has given an entirely different feel to the Conservatoire’s Jazz Department. Already we are in our third bi-monthly brace of gigs at our brand new venue and we now have a complete sense that the Club is the department and the department is the Club, one and the same. This is a unique position for any Conservatoire – it’s really exciting to be running a department so fully integrated with the performance scene in a major UK city such as Birmingham.

Indeed, we are not merely a venue for the City but also internationally, as we have already hosted several capacity crowds to see world-class luminaries on the jazz circuit.

The international artist roll call so far includes Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Gilad Heckselman, Mark Turner, Ingrid and Christine Jensen, Stan Sulzmann, Mike Gibbs, Peter Evans and Walter Smith III. These have all stemmed from guest artist masterclasses for the students which have segued into evening gigs, so the students meet and play with the artists, then see them perform, all in their very own venue. I’ve managed to prioritise jazz staff in the bookings as well – it’s so important that students see us perform and see the connection between this and our teaching. The jazz staff who have performed so far are myself, Andrew Bain, John O’Gallagher, Percy Pursglove, John Turville, Mark Hodgson, Jeff Williams, Arnie Somogyi, Clark Tracey, Sara Colman, Rebecca Nash, Robbie Robson and Steve Fishwick. The evening gigs have all been existing projects, not especially configured staff bands, which is an indication of the team’s activity on top of their education work, and give us further connection into the UK professional scene.

Greg Milner

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Tom Bird

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Graduates of our jazz course feature heavily as well. They often get involved in senior students’ bands, but also are offered gigs in their own right. Alumni bands on Thursday nights have been led so far by Stella Roberts, Dave Sear, Elliott Sansom, Olly Chalk, Josh Schofield and Tom Syson.

We are even giving space to our key Erasmus partners.

Siena Jazz have already performed there, and in May we invite students from Trondheim, Norway, to play before the annual Cheltenham Jazz Festival exchange with our students.

Greg Milner

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It goes without saying that our students play at the Club all the time. Mondays are either Jazz Orchestra or Ellington Orchestra, Tuesdays we have what is essentially our repertoire class, now called Jazz Canon, run by John O’Gallagher and Percy Pursglove. Wednesdays replace our previous live jazz broadcasts and Performance Platforms, now called Exit Velocity, which is run by Andrew Bain, where senior students present their own bands, in preparation for their finals. Thursdays are guest nights with the aforementioned artists, plus student support bands from the Exit Velocity sessions.

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The last Friday of the month features our Afro Cuban band, a collaboration between the Jazz and Percussion departments which links in with the BCU Student Union Salsa dance classes that take place beforehand, and is becoming guaranteed to sell out way in advance.

Well, after all this frenetic explosion of jazz, are we still standing? To be honest for myself and Andrew Bain, getting everyone up to base camp in such a short space of time has not been stress-free. Having our own jazz venue definitely brings much more pressure for everybody, staff and students alike. However, the payoff is proving to be incredibly rewarding, with students developing at a faster rate than ever and gaining in confidence and experience all the time. The Events Office, headed up

by Emily Bartlett, has been fantastic to work with. Emily has been a great colleague in the programming, and particularly helpful in brokering co-promotions with our partners Jazzlines, TDE productions and Cheltenham Jazz

Greg Milner

The Ellington nights are probably the best and most diverse audiences that we get for student performances.

Young and old, musicians and non-musicians, students and staff, Ellingtonian aficionados and people completely new to jazz all get something different from these shows.

It’s such a pleasure to hear how fantastic a big band sounds in this amazing acoustic, and of course as Director I get a ring side seat. It’s particularly wonderful to hear the Ellington repertoire at such close quarters, and to indulge myself in choosing what we play!

What really makes sense of our concept of Club and Department as one, however, are the Exit Velocity nights.

Our jazz course is about supporting the artistic freedom of new up-and-coming jazz talent and connecting the students to the professional scene. In Eastside Jazz Club all senior students play on the same platform as international artists, staff and graduates, with a view to giving them an unparalleled platform to grow and develop

“Come and check out Eastside Jazz Club and take your pick from the huge array of jazz on offer. It would be brilliant to see you there – it’s a great night out.”

Festival. She has also been the linchpin in connecting up the stewarding, our catering through Baxter Storey, and the much needed publicity. Thanks to Emily and her team there is a real sense of support behind Eastside Jazz Club, and we have imaginative ideas in the pipeline to help us move forward, including the introduction of a Maître d’ role from within the stewarding staff, connecting the club properly to the foyer space, and managing technical staff for sound engineering and recording.

as jazz musicians. The Club also affords them the chance to play repeat performances with the same personnel – the crucible in which improvised music really comes alive.

This is an all too rare opportunity these days, so being able to make it a front and centre feature of the course is incredible.

Jeremy Price HonRBC Head of Jazz 11

Living the reality of a digital conservatoire This time last year in Spring 2017, I wrote the keynote article for Fanfare outlining some of the range of vibrant activity that happens under the umbrella of the Conservatoire’s Music Technology department.

Most importantly, of course, the spaces all sound superb.

Our Concert Hall and live recording venues each have outstanding acoustic properties that show all the signs of facilitating highest-quality recording. Our Lab space is an incredibly flexible black box space featuring the surround-sound flexibility that will allow for our more esoteric live electronics and experimental performances to be accommodated with ease. The Eastside Jazz Club has the most wonderful, intimate acoustic, with very flexible PA and recording capabilities. Already our spaces are catching the eye of leading record companies and broadcasters: The BBC, Classic FM, Jazz FM, Naxos and Somm are all starting to take advantage of our facilities from 2018 onwards.

Simon Hall ©Mike Banks

In the same way that a Steinway piano doesn’t just benefit pianists, our technical resources will support the next generations of Conservatoire students extending way beyond the Music Technology department. These are the facilities that our students, staff and the wider community truly deserve.

At the time, we were dealing with the progressive demolition of the areas surrounding Paradise Place and the old Conservatoire building, trying to keep facilities running against adversity – bulldozers and recording studios aren’t the most immediately compatible bedfellows! At the same time the staff of the Music Technology department were working very closely with the University, architects, acousticians and the various contracted companies tasked with delivering the new Conservatoire building, to ensure that what was finally delivered would be in-line with the expectations of a digital conservatoire fit for the 21st Century.

Fast-forward six months to September 2017, and delays to the delivery of the Music Technology-enabled areas of the building made for a rather stressful start to the new academic year, as we started the teaching semester with facilities that still had a rather significant ‘snagging’ list!

However, as we approached the Christmas break and the systems that we conceived started to be pulled together, we began to get a real flavour of the capabilities of the fantastic resource which has been created for Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

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Hufton + Crow

Looking to the future, I feel certain that what we can now offer at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire will cement our position as a world-leading department of Music Technology.

Our recording studios, live spaces and workshop spaces are absolutely unsurpassed in terms of quality – not only superior in the education sector, but actually of a higher level than most professional facilities. For those who are familiar with the top-level brands of audio geek-ness, they all feature here in the highest concentration; SSL, Prism, Bowers & Wilkins, Meyer, PMC and ATC to name a few. These are all internationally respected companies that have collaborated with us in our vision for the building, and the end result of these partnerships is truly impressive.

Dr Simon Hall Head of Music Technology www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/departments/ music-technology www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/research/ research-staff/simon-hall 12

Becoming the destination of choice for organists As you ascend from the main foyer towards the concert hall, turn left. Through the heavy double doors you will find the Conservatoire’s first ever Organ Studio; a handsome room, ‘well-appointed’ to use an estate agent’s turn of phrase, and an inspiring space in which to learn, practise and perform. ©

in due course) will be the first in England to be designed without compromise for the study and performance of J.S Bach and his contemporaries. Whilst we await the new arrival, the Eule instrument from the previous building (itself a significant 1936 neo-classical organ) has been installed as a stop-gap: excuse the pun!

Tom Bird

Organ repertoire is vast. Every era and country has significantly different types of organ, which require different approaches and sometimes different techniques.

So our vision for the future is to build further stylespecific organs, enabling us to teach more of the repertoire in Birmingham in a focused and vivid way.

This would bring us closer in line with our distinguished friends at the Eastman and Leipzig Conservatories, for instance (whose professors regularly visit us to teach, and enjoy very close links with the department).

But why, given that space is finite in any new building, should an organ studio be included? The answer is that the studio provides our Organ Department with its own dedicated space – the only space in the building, in fact, where organ students can practise and perform in a slightly larger and more resonant environment – a critical experience for serious organ study. Far from being a luxury, the studio is our life-line educationally and musically, and we need every single minute in it when we are allowed access. In addition, of course, organists are more limited than any other instrumentalists as to where they can rehearse!

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Wonderful things are happening at RBC, and the organ department is no exception. We are the destination of choice for many young organists, and are ahead of all other UK educational institutions in the eyes of many in the organ fraternity. With a regular flow of young professionals on the ‘PSP’ scheme and Erasmus students, with education from some of the world’s top organists (residential and visiting) and with the largest organ department in the UK, these are exciting times.

Dan Moult

The fact that our Organ Studio is geographically at the heart of the new building is, I feel, a happy metaphor.

The organ used to be at the very centre of UK musical life from the seventeenth century right up until eighty years or so ago. At Birmingham, we are determined to reinstate the instrument’s national standing, and the Organ Studio is one modest but highly significant step in that direction!

However, we have been punching well above our weight for some time, as even our current resources in our new home don’t begin to match our profile or our future ambitions – this is where our Organ Studio enters the frame. The studio will house a brand new, specially commissioned organ. The new organ, designed by an internationally renowned firm, (details to be announced

Daniel Moult Head of Organ

“This fantastic new space has rapidly proved itself to be an invaluable addition to our already extensive resources at RBC. As home to our weekly seminars, lessons and increasingly for performance classes, the Organ Studio has now become central to our functioning as a department.

While it offers a spacious acoustic, it has also demonstrated its effectiveness as an intimate concert setting, particularly for early music. We are eagerly awaiting the new instrument’s arrival. Whether for practice or performance, this studio has great potential to become the crown jewel of the UK’s fastest rising organ department.” Sam Bristow, Student, Organ Studies 13

A continuing student’s perspective I am currently in the second year of my Bachelor’s degree, studying as a mezzo-soprano on the Vocal and Operatic Course. I was born and raised in Scotland and received the majority of my musical education in the Middle East.

Growing up in what felt like a melting pot of people from absolutely everywhere has given me such a great perspective culturally, and it has really shaped the way I’ve learned and looked at music over the years.

In Bahrain, I studied at St. Christopher’s school, where I graduated with an International Baccalaureate.

and everyone seems to have a more heightened focus.

I, for one, certainly came back after the summer with a burst of new energy and excitement. The new facilities have made studying here even more enjoyable than last year, when everything was new to me anyway. The Lab, for example, is one of my favourite spaces. If we were still in the old building we wouldn’t have been able to put on the Opera Scenes production in the same way that we did this year, using the new Lab space. The performance spaces we now have are just stellar and so state-of-theart. One good thing about the old building was that you could get to see everyone and it was easy to catch up with people regularly. However, in the new building, because it’s so much bigger than our last, you don’t see the same people around so often. That’s why it’s even better for collaborating and networking! I think that being in the new building has already encouraged the generation of more new projects and plans with different people from any department, even outside the Conservatoire in other schools of BCU.

Greg Milner

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This year I’m really looking forward to the different senior projects that I’ve been invited into, as well as performing with the Chamber Choir and doing my own solo work.

Within the Vocal department we are so fortunate to be given opera training at first hand by professionals. I have friends in other conservatoires who do not get the chance to work in opera until much later on in their degree. I couldn’t be happier than to be where I am, working with such talented musicians and such experienced tutors and teachers all round.

I was involved in a wide range of music; classical, musical theatre, rock, pop and jazz. In my graduate year, I had the opportunity of participating in Young Musicians of the Gulf, an annual music competition hosted by St. Christopher’s senior school, involving British schools in the Middle East. After performing in the Semi-Finals for the adjudicators, Penny Stirling (violinist), John Thwaites (Head of the Keyboard department), and Christopher Griksaitis (a graduate tenor of the Conservatoire), I was met with the opportunity to audition at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. I had just gone through a number of other auditions, and this one arose just at the right time. So I decided to apply, and it certainly worked out for the absolute best. My audition was in the old building, which seemed like a maze to me when I got there, but over time through my first year I managed to find my way around.

When I think back to the old building, it really was full of memories, and having spent good time there with my friends and colleagues really makes me appreciate the things it had to offer.

Gabriella Liandu, BMus second year, Vocal and Operatic Department

The new performance spaces we have been given are just stellar and so state-of-the-art. I absolutely adore the new building, and I think I speak for everyone when I say I was incredibly impressed when I first walked in. I love the ambiance of the environment here. There is definitely a new atmosphere. Something about it feels more vibrant,

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Graeme Braidwood

A Head of Department’s perspective The impact of the new building was immediate – both in ways I had expected but also in ways I hadn’t.

Spending a calm and satisfying couple of weeks in August, along with colleagues, getting our own rooms organised, it felt like a closely guarded secret.

When the students were allowed in for the first time there was an incredible sense of excitement and discovery – like children in a sweet shop!

Alongside the wealth of orchestral training we offer, the students really do have the broadest range of opportunities, enormously enhanced by the new building.

Specialist tutor Paul Saunders, from the West End show Wicked, spends many a happy hour helping our students with the necessary skills needed to change between two or three wind instruments in the blink of an eye. The art of doubling and tripling in an orchestral pit needs a good deal of practice, but raises our students’ employment opportunities in this ever more popular field.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, some of them are learning to play baroque music on original instruments.

Not only that, we even have instruments they can borrow.

We had a workshop recently on baroque dancing, alongside modern dance and folk dancing; we really get everyone thinking about pulse in the whole body, not just in the head! The flexible space we have in the new Recital Hall opens up endless possibilities, and the sprung wooden floor lends itself beautifully to dance. The opportunities on offer throughout the Conservatoire are remarkable, and these, alongside woodwind masterclasses by members of the LSO, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw, the Philharmonia and the CBSO this year alone, really are the icing on the cake.

A particular highlight for the Woodwind Department is the reed-making room; a room just for oboe and bassoon students with shiny new machines, tools, a work bench and excellent lighting; what a luxury compared with the filing cabinet and rusty tools in the old building! It’s easy to appreciate the excitement. Our department occupies a sunny corner on the third floor lovingly known as ‘woodwind corner’! We face south and the light streams in. Dougie Mitchell, our wonderful Associate Head of Woodwind is based in the room next to my office. It’s fantastic to have a large room to call our own and the students always know where to find us. It’s also regularly used for chamber music, auditions and those allimportant scales exams! The raised level of motivation amongst the students is really noticeable – they’re in early to practise and the work ethic is tremendous. To me, it feels as though the light streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows lifts everyone’s spirits. In the spring/summer months, I imagine students and staff will be staying even later into the evening, perhaps chatting over a pint of Conservatoire ale.

I left music college with one skill – orchestral playing; it was good fortune that I had a chance to play! Our students at the Conservatoire have the opportunity to be the best players they can, at the same time as dipping their toes into many other related waters; how lucky they are, and what a pleasure it is to see them grow in this wonderful new environment!

Jenni Phillips Head of Woodwind

My career began as an oboist in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. When my husband Mark and I moved to Birmingham, I became an Associate member of the CBSO oboe section. During this time, my passion for teaching and education grew, but my love of orchestral playing is still at the heart of what we do here. Dougie was Principal Clarinet in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for nearly 20 years, so he brings an enormous wealth of knowledge to us. This is now his third year with us and his enthusiasm is infectious.

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A dual perspective Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Head of Percussion, Adrian Spillett, is also Section Leader Percussion for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Here he speaks about the future from this privileged dual perspective, and how it enables him to create new connections between the two organisations.

Upstream Photography

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I was lucky enough to get a personal tour of the new building just before the summer that it opened, so I knew the building was going to be great, but I was still mega impressed when the Percussion Department moved in two months later. Our luxury ‘penthouse’ Percussion Suite, the five venues and the facilities throughout the building are pure class.

new commission for the CBSO Centenary. We have also been invited back to Wells Cathedral School for another joint concert with their impressive percussion department after a hugely successful CBSO/RBC joint visit in January.

My favourite venue in our new building is The Lab, as it offers so many opportunities for experimental work. With the new multimedia facilities at my fingertips, I’m looking forward to programming more and more adventurous works. For example, the department recently joined forces with the Music Technology and Stage Management Departments for some more daring programming, including Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie 1 which they performed to big crowds at Centrala, Digbeth.

It’s nearly four years since I started my role as Head of Percussion and one of my many goals has been to strengthen links with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and many other prestigious professional outfits. The CBSO/Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Percussion Scheme has had an excellent success rate, with about 50/60% of the successful candidates being asked back for extra work. We also have a CBSO Timpani Scheme this year thanks to CBSO’s new superb timpanist, Matthew Hardy. In addition, 2017 saw CBSO & RBC percussionists perform daring programmes of Xenakis & Reich to two sell-out “Centre Stage” crowds (the CBSO Chamber Concert Series). This is now an annual event in the CBSO/RBC calendar, and we’re looking forward to a

I’m lucky and thankful to both my employers for their flexibility in allowing me to juggle my work between both CBSO & RBC. A world class orchestra in Symphony Hall and a new Conservatoire with world class facilities… life is good, if a little busy!

Aidy Spillett Head of Percussion 16

From humble origins in the middle of the 19th century as a penny singing class within the Birmingham and Midland Institute, the Birmingham School of Music was finally established as a major force for musical education in 1886. Here we tell of the challenge it faced to forge an identity during the century that followed, eventually re-inventing itself as Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, a school within the Arts, Design and Media Faculty of Birmingham City University.

Within these pages we celebrate Royal Birmingham Conservatoire – its history, its people, its triumphs: how it has positioned itself upon the world stage, the support of the wider university in facilitating these achievements, and the talents of the Conservatoire students themselves, both from long ago, and today, as they venture out into the world.

With a Foreword by THE Conservatoire’s ROYAL Patron, HRH The Earl of Wessex

ISBN: 978-1-78396-319-5 |  £30

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Alumni news MA Acting alumna Danielle Pinnock in Big Bang prequel

Acting graduate Lewis Howard playing Heart of Joey in War Horse

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anielle appeared on USA TV show, This is Us, last season, and this year she landed a recurring featured role as Ms Ingram in Young Sheldon (the Big Bang Theory prequel), the first series of which has aired in the UK in early 2018. She has also guest starred in major hit US show Scandal alongside Viola Davis and Kerry Washington for Director/Producer Shonda Rhimes.

Follow her on Twitter @bodycourage to keep up with her flourishing career!

he National Theatre play, based on the award-winning novel by Michael Morpurgo, is currently on a national tour which closes in February 2019. Lewis has been part of the cast since 2012.

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Brinkhoff Mögenburg

Sean Gilde now Head of Strings at the Dragon School in Oxford

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long with alumnae Kate Bickerdike and Kelly McCusker HonRBC, he plays in the Astaria String Quartet, which is Quartet in Residence at Huntingdon Hall in Worcester. They also run the local Chamber Music Festival which this year will be at Claines Church, Worcester in October.

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Kanada written, directed and performed by acting alumni

David Muller

Royal Philharmonic Society/Wigmore Hall apprentice composer

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anada, written and directed by Nathalie Bazán, was produced at the Old Joint Stock Theatre in February.

The seven-person cast included five other alumni: Alan Booth, Rhiannon Skerritt, Angus Villiers-Stuart, Eleanor Walker and Femke Witney. It was presented in association with Birmingham-based Lying Lips Theatre Company.

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n February we received the news that recent Conservatoire PhD graduate Edmund Hunt has been appointed as the Royal Philharmonic Society/Wigmore Hall apprentice composer for 2018.

Maraca2 performs with LA Phil

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araca2 consists of visiting tutors and Conservatoire alumni Tim Palmer and Jason Huxtable. The duo are respected as one of the world’s leading percussion ensembles, and in February had their debut percussion concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the home of the Orchestra in LA - the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The performance, conducted by the LA Phil’s Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, received four standing ovations!

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Alumna Di Xiao named one of Birmingham City University’s 2017 Alumni of the Year

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he internationally acclaimed pianist received her award at Symphony Hall in the presence of hundreds of graduands and their families.

New Channel 4 comedy stars MA Acting graduate

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icola Coughlan (MA Acting 2011) plays the role of Erin’s best friend, Clare Devlin in new Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls, and the show has recently been commissioned for a second series, the first series having experienced huge success early in 2018.

Graduate Stage Manager tours with West End show

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ince graduating from our BA (Hons) Stage Management course in 2011, Jordan Goff has toured China as Stage Manager with the West End production of The Bodyguard, and has also toured with shows in the UK such as Sister Act, Hairspray and Singin’ in the Rain. He has been part of the original company for two West End productions – White Christmas and Beautiful – the Carole King Musical.

Strictly Arts Theatre Company wins funded Fringe run

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trictly Arts Theatre company, founded by alumnus Corey Campbell, has been awarded the Charlie Hartill Special Reserve fund by the Pleasance Theatre for its show FREEMAN. Strictly Arts won out of 14 nominated companies and will receive £10K of in kind support for a run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018. FREEMAN was a collaboration with award winning writer and alumna Camilla Whitehill, and directed by Conservatoire Head of Undergraduate Studies – Acting, Danièle Sanderson.

Alumnus in Forbes ‘30 under 30’ list

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avid Taylor, who studied at the Conservatoire and graduated in 2013, is now CEO of Yorkshire Young Sinfonia (YYS). In January he was named on the prestigious Forbes magazine 30 under 30 list.

Best Newcomer nominees at the NTAs

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wo of our acting graduates were nominated for the Best Newcomer prize at the National Television Awards 2018: Rob Mallard (Coronation Street) and Nathan Morris (Hollyoaks) were both put forward for this major accolade.

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Conservatoire news The Running Viola smashes second world record with musical outfit

Royal Gala opening The official opening of our brand new £57 million building was marked by a visit from HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex KG GCVO, on Sunday 11 March. His Royal Highness unveiled a plaque prior to a concert in his honour, during which our Symphony Orchestra and Chorus were conducted by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s (CBSO) Music Director, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla. Tickets for the Royal Gala went on sale in early January and sold out within days; however the concert was also live-streamed to an audience in our Recital Hall.

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listair Rutherford has once again mixed his love of music and athletics to break another Guinness World Record; running the fastest marathon dressed as a musical instrument.

On Sunday 15 October Alistair successfully broke the world record by nearly an hour, on the streets of Birmingham, in a time of 3 hr, 20 min and 33 sec. The finish line was on Jennens Road, on the doorstep of the Conservatoire, and he was welcomed home by a group of violists from the Conservatoire playing a new commission by composer Dani Blanco Albert, a postgraduate student studying at the Conservatoire. Alistair has had both of his records officially verified by Guinness World Records just in the last few weeks!

We would like to congratulate Alistair on his incredible achievements, and you can still sponsor his efforts for the ARCO project via: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ therunningviolamarathonrecord

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Greg Milner

Greg Milner

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BBC Radio 3 broadcasts from our Concert Hall

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he very first broadcasts from our new Concert Hall were produced by BBC Radio 3 in January, with a series of lunchtime recitals by four of the BBC’s New Generation Artists. The weekly hour-long concerts filled the lunchtime slot on successive Tuesdays. We welcomed trumpeter Simon Höfele, pianist Mariam Batsashvili, baritone Benjamin Appl and string quartet Quatuor Arod.

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Percussion performance at the Gymnastics World Cup

Penguins enjoy violin serenade to celebrate Valentine’s Day

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ix percussion students from the Conservatoire’s Millennial Percussion group performed in front of a stadium crowd of 15,800 at the 2018 Gymnastics World Cup in March. Held at Arena Birmingham, the global competition welcomed eight different countries competing over two days. The group is led by Sophie Hastings, Head of Drum Kit and World Percussion at the Conservatoire, and performed an excerpt from Apex by Golden Globe-nominated composer Ben Wallfisch.

group of Gentoo penguins at the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham were treated to a Valentine’s Day serenade by conservatoire violinist Markéta Nádvorníková. The romantic fish supper was staged to mark the start of the penguins’ breeding season – we were only too happy to help our new friends at the Sea Life Centre and do our bit to encourage more penguin chicks in the coming year!

Jazz Department new appointments

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ur Jazz Department has recently appointed acclaimed musicians John O’Gallagher and Percy Pursglove to the Department’s teaching staff, further strengthening the team and Birmingham’s position as a major international centre for jazz teaching, performance and research.

Conservatoire Folk Ensemble entertain hundreds at New Street Station

BBC Young Musician Competition celebrates 40th anniversary in Birmingham

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uring March, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire was the venue for the category finals and semi-final of the BBC Young Musician Competition. 2018 is the competition’s 40th year, and there have been extra celebrations to mark this special occasion.

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oe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble entertained commuters at Birmingham New Street Station in January to coincide with our music Open Day. The Ensemble brightened the day for hundreds of Birmingham’s commuters, and Facebook footage taken of one of the four performances went viral – reaching over 250,000 people!

Junior RBC Pianist reaches BBC Young Musician final 16 year-old Lauren Zhang, a student at Royal Birmingham Junior Conservatoire, was named Winner of the Piano Category Final of the BBC Young Musician Competition and went on to get through the semi-final to become one of three finalists in the final, taking place at Symphony Hall in May. This adds to Lauren’s impressive list of achievements and prizes, amongst others 1st Prize at the Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists.

Lauren has studied with Dr Robert Markham since 2010; himself a former Winner of the Piano Category Final of the BBC Young Musician Competition in addition to winning other prizes including reaching the final of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

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New production of Closer gets first fully BAME cast and director

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wenty years after it was first staged at the National Theatre, Patrick Marber’s multi-award winning play Closer received its first BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) production when our final year actors staged it in December. The production was directed by Vik Sivalingam, with third year actors Muyiwa Ibie (Anna), Mara Huf (Alice), Shobat Kadara (Dan) and Seabert Henry (Larry).

Note from the RBCA Treasurer Subscriptions 2018-19 Annual subscriptions are due on 1st May. Individual Annual: £15 / Joint Annual £20 (as from May 2017).

See the enclosed reminder slip for payment details. If you have a Standing Order in place, please ensure that the mandate has been updated to the new rate, if you haven’t already done so. As there has been plenty of notice given, any subs received by Standing Order at the old rates will be treated as donations, and you will no longer be a member.

Birmingham International Recorder and Early Music Festival

Life membership: Individual £175 / Joint £225

Gift Aid

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n February we held our second ever Birmingham International Recorder and Early Music Festival. One of the events that took place as part of the festival was the fascinating workshop run by Tim Cranmore, which demonstrated how to make a recorder from a carrot!

The Festival also welcomed big name acts such as The Gonzaga Band and Bonfire Radicals, Swedish recorder player Dan Laurin with harpsichordist Anna Paradiso, and London Handel Players with dancers. The Conservatoire’s own Head of Recorder Annabel Knight and members of our Recorder Department also featured, plus Warwickshire Youth Waits, Musical and Amicable Society and Late Night Loops. Other highlights included a Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration concert for Walter Bergmann, The Birmingham Young Recorder Soloists Competition, Early Music taster workshops, demonstration events and Recorder Masterclasses. We also hosted a number of Early Music exhibitors.

Many thanks to those who have returned Gift Aid forms. Please don’t forget to let me know if your contact details or circumstances change, particularly if you no longer pay tax. If a form is enclosed with this Fanfare, then we don’t have the latest reply from you, so do please consider filling in and returning it if you are eligible.

Easyfundraising Just to remind you all that RBCA is registered with Easyfundraising, an organisation through which online shoppers can donate to charities such as RBCA. To find out more, visit easyfundraising.org. uk and do consider taking the steps to sign up.

Change of address and contact details Please notify either the Secretary or myself if you move house or change any of your contact details.

New international piano chamber music competition

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he first Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition takes place as part as part of the Piano Chamber Music Festival at the Conservatoire in November.

Daniel Tong, Head of Piano Chamber Music at the Conservatoire and Competition Director, has been working hard to encourage ensembles to enter, assuring all will be heard and spreading the word that our competition will be collegiate and inclusive. Find out more, including how to enter, at www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/ piano-chamber-music-festival-18 22

RBCA Hon Secretary: John Smith: 0121 476 4741; johnsmithhrs359@gmail.com RBCA Hon Treasurer: Helen Mills: 0121 449 2135; mills_cross@hotmail.com

RBCA news

Reg Charity No. 1067676

Change of name to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association (RBCA)

• Jonathan Gibbs, alumnus (1967-79) and annual member on 20 June, 2017, aged 67

Consequent upon the granting of Royal status to the Conservatoire, the Trustees approached the Charity Commission to seek permission to change our name to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association. This was agreed and on 8 January, 2018 our entry in the Register was updated accordingly.

• Jean Faulkner, alumna (1950s) and life member on 19 January, 2018, aged 88

• Frank Allen, alumnus (1959-63) on 28 September, 2017

• Margaret Handford née West, aged 91, alumna (1968-72) and life member, on 21 February, 2018 • Martyn Davies, former member of staff, on 28 February, 2018

Welcome to new members

• Stephen Williams alumnus (1956-60) and life member, on 7 March, 2018

We welcome 10 new members who have joined the Association since the last edition of Fanfare: alumna (1958-61) Christine Allen née Garforth; Mrs Jean Hepburn; Graham and Angela Hollands; Robert and Lynne Ingram; Mrs Marion Symonds; alumna (1969-70) Gabrielle Twomey; alumna (1954-66) Rosemary Walton née Orton; and Timothy Walton.

News of RBCA members Alumnus (1975-78) and life member Andrew McManus tells us that after a 36 year career as a teacher he retired in 2016 and is now an LCM examiner, which takes him as far afield as Ireland, Asia and and Africa. Following graduation he taught for 11 years in Bristol and in 1992 obtained the Archbishop of Canterbury’s certificate in church music. He was appointed Director of Music at the British School in Gran Canaria then held a similar position in Jakarta (Indonesia), Lomé (Togo), Lagos (Nigeria) and Kenya.

2018 Annual General Meeting Further to support from members at the Christmas lunch, the AGM this year will be held at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire at 2pm on Sunday 24 June, 2018. The meeting will be followed by a tour of the new building, music and afternoon tea. Full details on the enclosed notice and booking form.

With Mark Baigent, oboe, and Eva Caballero, flute, alumnus (1968-79) and life member Michael Jones has recorded works by Honorary Fellow Rutland Boughton (1878-1960). The CD, entitled Rutland Boughton ‘for Joyance’, is available on the Oboe Classics label (CC 2034).

Conservatoire news The 2018 Annual Service of Thanksgiving and Commemoration to celebrate the names of those inscribed in the Musicians’ Book of Remembrance will be held at 6pm on Tuesday 1 May, 2018 at St Sepulchrewithout-Newgate, the National Musicians’ Church. We are associated with honorary fellow, honorary member and former Head of Woodwind Antony Miller; former member of staff and annual member Robert Meikle; honorary fellow, alumnus (1948-49) and BCA emeritus founder member Peter Ward; honorary fellow, honorary member and former Head of Brass Reg Reid; life member and CBSO violist Gwyn Williams; former member of staff James Patten; alumnus (1955-58) David Wulstan, founder of The Clerkes of Oxenford.

Honorary Chairman Emeritus and alumnus (195458) Jeremy Patterson HonFRBC writes that ‘Royal Birmingham Conservatoire visiting tutor and life member of RBCA, Margaret Newman gave a most musically rewarding piano recital in the church of St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, on Friday 16 February 2018.

Her programme for the hour’s recital was admirably chosen for an afternoon audience, beginning with Brahms G minor Rhapsody before Beethoven’s wonderful ‘Les Adieux’ Sonata. After a short break, she played two Preludes from Opus 32 by Rachmaninov, Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor, and concluding with a Chopin Nocturne and Ballade.

We regret to report the deaths of:

The church acoustic gave the piano a radiance whilst maintaining total clarity in rapid passagework. A most appreciative audience of about eighty were enthralled and gave Margaret an extended ovation at the close, perhaps disappointed that there was no encore’.

• James Patten, former member of staff (1991-95) on 3 January, 2015, aged 78 • Albert Chatterley, alumnus (1948-50) and life member in April/May 2016, aged 84 23

A hub for education and community music Presenting the new Conservatoire to be a place where the music education community feels supported and welcomed is a key strategy, and is increasingly necessary in the current political climate. Our standing as a place of excellence in music education enables partner organisations such as Music Hubs and schools to work with us to provide inspirational opportunities for their young musicians, and to advocate for continued investment in musical training for young people. takes for the track! We even fitted a 25-piece chamber orchestra in the live room to record the backing track.

In January 2018, we hosted our first ever Digital Music Lab – a performance with associated interactive workshops aimed at Secondary School students studying music and music technology. We took the opportunity to utilise the capabilities of our brand new Lab space, commissioning four new pieces which explored the relationship between live acoustic instruments and live electronics. For the 80 school students who attended it

Our work to invite the community, young people and families to get involved in Conservatoire activities has a huge impact on our own students for their own professional career development. Education and community workshops are led, co-led or shadowed by our students, giving them the opportunity to develop their skills alongside experienced Conservatoire staff.

We launched the new building in style in September 2017 with our Music Mystery Tour. Starting at the Bullring Shopping Centre, our interactive musical tour for families encompassed pop, opera, samba, junk percussion and classical music, before culminating in a jazz performance in our brand new Conservatoire foyer. We ran six tours over the weekend, bringing in a diverse crowd of over 700 people. Part of the Birmingham Weekender arts festival, this was our first signal to the city that the new Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) is for everyone.

RBC is the most digitally enhanced Conservatoire in the UK, and we are keen for all sorts of groups to use our facilities. In October we held our first education and community recording session, inviting thirty primary school children from Welford Primary School, Handsworth and Old Park Primary School in Telford. The children were able to experience the recording process in our live room, learning how the equipment worked, and how stressful it can be to do two, three or even four

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was an eye-opener to see electronic manipulation of live sound by gestural devices, live coding and processing.

For our own undergraduate students it was a great opportunity to explore another side of performing which perhaps they had not experienced, and gave them an insight into the collaborative process which is increasingly important in the life of a portfolio musician.

The digital music LAB was a pilot project testing how we aim to attract groups of schools to use the building.

RBC Outreach department will be visiting the schools to run workshops based on the repertoire provided by NOFA. The programme culminated in a massed orchestra day in our Recital Hall in March 2018, where 150 young musicians spent the day rehearsing repertoire as well as creating their own music.

Future plans for hosting groups at the Conservatoire include: • Inviting hundreds of primary school children to attend concerts of Peter and the Wolf in May 2018

As schools face ever-increasing challenges to their music provision, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is committed to standing alongside and supporting the offer to children who otherwise would not be able to learn music. To this end, we launched our first ever Schools Partnership Programme. Selected through an open application process, ten schools will now work with RBC over the coming academic year in a variety of ways, tailored to each setting. Inspirational visits to the new building to experience live music are a given, and creative workshops, vocal projects, ensemble and orchestral projects are currently being planned.

• Hosting the Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra for 250 young musicians in August 2018 If you haven’t visited us yet, check our opening festival programme for some really exciting visitors and concerts with our students. If you would like to organise a school group or community visit please contact our Learning and Participation team at conlearning@bcu.ac.uk We look forward to welcoming you to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire soon!

This year we are partnering with National Orchestras for All (NOFA) on their Modulo programme. Modulo is aimed at supporting schools to start ensembles and giving them the impetus at the very beginning to enable them to grow.

Jeremy Clay Teaching Fellow

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Following our Royal Opening Gala Opening Concert, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire presents 15 months of incredible concerts and events, in a celebration of music and arts in our brand new, state-of-the-art venues. Here are some of the highlights announced so far:

PETER AND THE WOLF WITH SIR LENNY HENRY Fri 4 May, 7pm - Concert Hall Sir Lenny Henry narrator Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Pops Orchestra Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Sir Lenny Henry, Chancellor of Birmingham City University, narrating Prokofiev’s classic story, Peter and the Wolf.

ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN Mon 28 May, 2.30pm - Concert Hall Julian Lloyd Webber conductor Jian Wang and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber cello Orchestra of the Swan is delighted to present a very special concert with three extraordinary talents at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

NITIN SAWHNEY: INDIA AND ME Sat 23 Jun, 7pm - Recital Hall Recent recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award, acclaimed artist Nitin Sawhney co-presents an evening of music and memories with London theatre company Tara Arts.

Support Us If you would like to support the work of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire by naming a seat in our new Concert Hall, please contact Robin Leonard at robin.leonard@bcu.ac.uk or on 0121 331 5534.

Be part of our new home, be part of our future www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire Issue 6, spring 2018

Birmingham City University