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School news
Student and alumni success
Guildhall welcomes new Principal, Lynne Williams
Competition successes
As Professor Barry Ife steps down from his role as Principal of the Guildhall School, we are delighted to announce that Lynne Williams, Director and CEO of Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, will join us as Principal in early 2017. Professor Barry Ife has been in post for 12 years and is stepping down to focus on teaching and research. Williams has been the Director and CEO of Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) since 2008. The Guildhall School’s Principal provides strategic direction and leadership for the institution, ensuring that the School’s business plan is executed effectively, and represents the School at a national and international level. Williams will be tasked with maintaining and further developing the School’s world-class standing, reputation, and standards in academia, business and outreach. Her responsibilities also include forming and maintaining strong national and international partnerships across the arts, education, and the community. Chairman of the Board of Governors, Deputy John Bennett, said, ‘We are delighted that Lynne Williams is joining the Guildhall School at this exciting time in the School’s life. The next few years will see significant opportunities as well as challenges for the higher education sector and for culture and the performing arts in the City of London and beyond. Lynne inherits a world-class institution with an exceptional senior management team leading a remarkably strong artistic, educational and research output. I am very pleased that she has accepted the offer to join us and take her vision for the School forward.’ Williams will oversee the implementation of a curriculum which aims at the highest standards of performing skill and academic achievement and at the development of individual autonomy, curiosity, leadership, flexibility and risk-taking through imaginative forms of teaching and learning. Her role also
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includes a focus on creating a culture which is receptive to change, which fosters collaboration between the various professional disciplines, innovation, personal motivation and reflection, mutual tolerance and respect within the School. As well as reinvigorating teaching and learning at NIDA since 2008, Lynne Williams has developed a significant breadth of arts practice, pedagogy and cultural entrepreneurship across not-for profit, government and commercial sectors over the course of her career. Williams has held many arts and cultural leadership positions in the UK where she was resident for 21 years. She led the development of the Culture, Ceremonies and Education Programme for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), following her contribution to London 2012’s successful Olympic Bid as a Cultural Advisor/Creative Producer. Williams was also Artistic Director of Cardiff 2008, the company bidding for Cardiff to be 2008 European Capital of Culture, where she was responsible for developing a new cultural strategy and leading a team in a bid on behalf of Wales. Lynne Williams told us that ‘The Guildhall School is one of the great conservatoires of the world. I am excited to be joining the team and the wider Guildhall community to build on this prestigious reputation at a time when excellence and innovation in arts education and training has never been so crucial to ensuring a creative and cultural future for 21st-century society.’
We are delighted to report a plethora of major recent successes for our young artists, students, and alumni. Tenor Alessandro Fisher became the joint winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award this year. Alessandro, who studied on the postgraduate Vocal Studies programme under Susan Waters between 2011-13, received the award in the annual competition finals at the Wigmore Hall in April. The success didn’t stop there for Guildhall as mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew, who is currently studying on the Opera course under Yvonne Kenny, was awarded the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize, while Ashok Gupta, who trained as a repetiteur on the Opera course from 2010-12, won the Help Musicians UK Accompanist’s Prize.
Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the BBC Ten Pieces Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.
Music Gold Medal winner Oliver Wass (centre)
Meanwhile at the School, harpist Oliver Wass won this year’s Gold Medal, Guildhall’s most prestigious prize for outstanding soloists. Oliver’s winning performance was Ginastera’s Concerto for Harp accompanied by the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Leaper. Claudia Jolly and Victoria Shillingford won the Gold Medals in Acting and in Technical Theatre respectively.
BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Guildhall young artists have also been successful in high-profile competitions this year. Winners of the BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers’ Competition 2016 included two students from Junior Guildhall, Sam RuddJones and Lilly Vadaneaux, alongside Jack Robinson from the London Centre for Young Musicians. In addition, three students from Hestercombe Centre for Young Musicians, Michael Qureshi, Yasmine Qureshi and Evie King, were selected to perform their composition, Fluto no uto, alongside the BBC
Acting Gold Medal winner Claudia Jolly
Junior Guildhall’s prestigious Lutine Prize went to violinist Didier Osindero for his programme of J.S. Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G minor and Britten’s Suite Op. 6. Inaugurated in 1982, the Lutine Prize is Junior Guildhall’s equivalent of the senior school’s annual Music Gold Medal competition. 7