DEFINING THE FUTURE OF MUSIC
The RNCM has remained at the forefront of music education globally for over 50 years. We are proud to have achieved Gold in all areas of the Teaching Excellence Framework and to have been ranked in the top five for music in the QS World University Rankings. We also added to our extensive collection of external endorsements by securing our fifth Times Higher Education Award, this time for Outstanding Entrepreneurial University.
Exceptional collaborations, performances, projects, and initiatives across all core areas of our work have seen us build on the momentum we achieved during our 50th anniversary year, ensuring that we maintain our position as one of the most progressive and forward-thinking conservatoires in the world.
Here’s a brief look at some of our highlights…
AT A GLANCE
£2.85m philanthropic support raised
54,000 tickets sold
6,500+
children and young people participating in music making opportunities
890+ students enrolled across our degree programmes
300+ financial student awards
300+ public concerts and events
280+ paid performance opportunities generated for students
47 world premières
14 public Research Forums
EXCEPTIONAL TEACHING
We are proud to offer students a world-class, inspiring, and progressive learning experience, which has artistic excellence and integrity at its core, values individual aspirations, nurtures creativity, and is enriched by professional practice.
Each year, students enrolled at all levels of study benefit from incredible opportunities to develop their skills both on and off stage with experts from across the industry. These sideby-side and placement initiatives form a key part of our unique offer and complement the practical training they receive from our own professors.
In a year that saw us achieve Gold in all areas of the Teaching Excellence Framework and increase our portfolio of programmes with the launch of our specialised Master of Education degree, our guests included: cellist Alban Gerhadt; clarinettist Sérgio Pires; composers Oliver Coates, James Lee III, Cassandra Miller, and Ellie Slorach; conductors Baldur Brönnimann, Sir Mark Elder and David Hill; double bassists
Stanislav Anischenko, Billy Cole, and Théotime Voisin; flautist Nicole Esposito; French hornists Benjamin Goldscheider and Frøydis Ree Wekre; harpist
Anneleen Lenaerts; oboist
Phillippe Tondre; percussionist
Kai Strobel; pianists JeanEfflam Bavouzet, Dame Imogen
Cooper, Richard Goode, and Sir Stephen Hough; sitarist Jasdeep
Singh Degun; trombonists
Louise Pollock and Dennis Rollins; trumpeters Matthias Höfs and Byron Wallen; violinists Ning Feng and Henning Kraggerud; violist Sindy Mohammed; and singers Susan Bullock, David Butt Philip, Joyce Henderson, Jennifer Larmore, and Dame Ann Murray. Across our Popular Music programme, guests included guitarist Cory Wong (Vulfpeck), pianist Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), music director Mo Pleasure (Michael Jackson; Earth, Wind and Fire), trumpeter/arranger Philip Lassiter (Prince), and drummer Robert ‘Sput’ Searight (Snarky Puppy).
We also welcomed experts from across the wider music industry to work with students on entrepreneurship and career development, including Alexis Ffrench (classical-soul pioneer, composer, producer), Jo Yee Cheung (Chief Executive, Olympias Music Foundation), Sam Davies (Untold Orchestra), Tim Miles (Senior Vice President, Warner Music Group), Honor Morrison (BBC Radio 1 and BBC Introducing), and James Sargeant (Institutional Business Manager, Yamaha).
‘Innovation and creativity lie at the core of all we do, empowering our students to develop high level specialist and vocational skills with which they will transform the future music industry.’
PROFESSOR LINDA MERRICK CBE PRINCIPAL
INNOVATION
The RNCM is dedicated to Defining the Future of Music and innovation is a key part of our story. Through RNCM Innovate, we provide students and staff with a platform for experimentation and discovery, enabling them to push the boundaries of traditional music practices and drive the industry of tomorrow.
Our 2023/24 programme included: Lab Week, offering students across all years of study the chance to explore their creativity in a ‘safe to fail’ environment; the RNCM Creative Innovators Award, recognising students who excel in creative ambition and entrepreneurship; and music for health placements with specialist charities Jessie’s Fund and Songbirds Music UK, providing students with intensive, specialised training to work therapeutically with children and young people in health, care, and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) settings. We also welcomed our first Innovate Fellow, Jasdeep Singh Degun, who spent time working with students to enhance their understanding of musical cultures outside the Western tradition.
35+ students took part in Lab Week
16 students received intensive, specialised training to work in music for health settings
4 students received financial support and mentoring through the Creative Innovators Award
‘I took the Creative Innovators strand, which involved a series of lectures as well as a placement with the Hallé. Taking that module has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, having learned and developed pitching and presenting skills, and the process of taking an idea from its brainstorming phase to full realisation.’
NIA EDWARDS UNDERGRADUATE MEZZO-SOPRANO
THE FUTURE IS GREEN
We’re a community that cares about the future of music, and sustainability is high on our agenda.
The RNCM is a small conservatoire, and so it can be hard to see how we can make a difference, but that’s exactly what we want to do.
Climate change is something we can’t ignore, and last year we brought a focus to the natural world through a string of public performances as part of our The Future is Green initiative.
Complementing the important work within our curriculum and the environmental measures installed across our estate, the initiative presented a range of special events that provided opportunities for students, staff, audience members, and the wider community to learn with us, understand, and think about the role we all play. They included:
In Focus: The Climate Agenda Explored the relationship between composers and the natural world with performances at the RNCM and Wigmore Hall, London.
RNCM Piano Ensemble
Featuring John Psathas’ Voices at the End, this musical exploration about human civilisation and our relationship with the natural world fused live performance, video, and recorded sound.
The Silent Planet Holst’s iconic masterpiece was reimagined in a unique artistic partnership with Delia Stevens (percussion) and Will Pound (harmonica/melodeon), alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and RNCM students.
RNCM Community Opera: Silverwood
A new opera written and performed by our inaugural Community Chorus, led by composer and conductor Kate Pearson and artistic director Jonathan Ainscough, with support from RNCM students.
Nature’s Music at Manchester Museum RNCM musicians transformed Manchester Museum into an immersive experience in which the allure of music met the awe of nature.
On the stage…
30 The Future is Green public performances
5 student projects funded by the RNCM Green Fund
1 Earth Day symposium bringing together students, music, and arts industry guests …and across our estate...
Approximately 10,368 KWH of renewable energy and 12 tonnes of nutrient rich biofertilizer created from food waste recycling during the year
CO2 emissions from RNCM Food and Drink reduced by approximately 7 tonnes per annum
215 tonnes of carbon per annum set to be saved through the Library Building Decarbonisation Project
‘The
support we received from the RNCM was truly indispensable in helping us accomplish our sustainable tour of Europe. Without this financial support, we would not have been able to make this exciting endeavour possible.’
VULVA VOCE
STRING QUARTET AND COLLEGE ALUMNI SUPPORTED BY THE RNCM GREEN FUND TO UNDERTAKE A SUSTAINABLE TOUR OF EUROPE
COLLABORATION
The collaborations and partnerships we develop are designed to provide students with exceptional opportunities to build their professional and personal skills while they study.
This year, we extended our portfolio thanks to new partnerships with Olympias Music Foundation, designed to open up access to music education for diverse young people in Manchester, and the Peak Sinfonia of Hong Kong, a UK conservatoire training orchestra based in Hong Kong and dedicated to developing exceptional musicians in preparation for progression into higher education.
We also developed and presented creative projects with artists-in-residence Manchester Collective, and the Elias String Quartet, alongside special collaborations between Manchester Camerata and the RNCM Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the RNCM Brand New Orchestra, the Edvard Grieg Vocal Ensemble and the RNCM Chamber Choir, the Hallé with members of the RNCM Chamber Choir, and the Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines Scotland with the RNCM Symphony Chorus.
Hosting the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Awards was also a highlight of the year, as we welcomed hundreds of artists and guests from across the industry to the RNCM, marking the first time the event had been held outside of London in 34 years.
‘Studying at the RNCM has been such an amazing experience. I’ve acquired so many new skills and had the space to fully explore my creativity as an original artist.’
DAISY CAMERON POPULAR MUSIC VOCALIST
NEW MUSIC
The stimulating environment we provide means that there are exceptional opportunities for new music and creativity to flourish at the RNCM.
Initiatives such as our In Focus series of public workshops, masterclasses, and performances enable composition students to develop their craft alongside some of the world’s critically acclaimed composers, with many also gaining the opportunity to work with professional ensembles while they study. This year, we were delighted to welcome Cassandra Miller and Helen Grime to the RNCM for two special In Focus festivals, both of which featured new works by our students and performances by our Brand New Orchestra.
Alongside this, students on our popular music programme also received outstanding opportunities to develop and present their own music, with many benefitting from external studio recording sessions and gigs across the city as part of our Artists Live series, the RNCM Session Orchestra: Original Artists concert, and a special showcase event at the Sony Event Space in London.
RESEARCH
The RNCM provides a unique environment in which musical creativity and experimentation can flourish by continually forging new connections between teaching, research, and performance.
During the year, we engaged in multiple research and knowledge exchange activities, welcoming collaborations with both local and international partners. Highlights included:
Julia Perry In Focus
Led by Michael Harper (Professor of Singing), this weeklong exploration into the music of Julia Perry (1924–1979) featured lectures, presentations, and concerts.
Performance within the Soundscape
Stuart McCallum (Deputy Head of Popular Music) directed a project with external partners D&B Audiotechnik and Submarine Pickups that explored the bidirectional relationship between performer and technology, specifically focusing on immersive audio technologies.
Coming Up for Air in Rossendale
Led by composer-performer duo Dr Bofan Ma and Dr Kathryn Williams, this initiative considered the critical effects of indoor air quality and created a performance-led, multisensory installation driven by live air quality data.
Added to this, we also presented 14 free public Research Forums, featuring a range of guests alongside our own professors, lecturers, and postgraduate research students, and developed our Throwing Open the Concert Doors project to conserve and digitise thousands of RNCM recordings made possible by a £200,000+ grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
RNCM ENGAGE
RNCM Engage encompasses a wide range of initiatives to inspire children and young people to make music, helping to raise musical attainment and providing progression pathways to higher music education and beyond.
Engage Education
Complementary to Junior RNCM, our centre for advanced training for talented young musicians aged eight to 18, this award-winning programme of free and subsidised projects includes RNCM Young Projects, Young Artists, Young Strings, and Pathfinder. In 2023/24:
2,100+ children and young people tried an instrument for the first time or learnt new skills as part of RNCM Engage West Cumbria
250+ young musicians took part in RNCM Young Projects across a range of endangered instruments
200+ students studied at Junior RNCM, our centre for advanced training for talented young musicians
54 young musicians received free bespoke training, support, and mentoring through RNCM Pathfinder
20 members of RNCM Young Artists took part in a special RNCM Showcase at Sony Event Space, London
‘Young Artists pushes my creative thinking, and it makes me work outside of my comfort zone.’
SOL M
YOUNG ARTISTS PARTICIPANT
ENGAGE COMMUNITY
RNCM Engage also includes several outreach activities that bring members of our local community closer to our work, both on-site and around Greater Manchester. In 2023/24:
700+ students got involved in community projects, including 150+ as part of the Children’s Opera and Community Opera
540+ local performers took part in key community initiatives
140+ children across four local schools created and performed our Children’s Opera, based on The Jungle Book
129 members of the public, aged nine to 80, created and performed Silverwood, our first Community Opera
26 people aged 18-80 came together to form our inaugural Community Choir
‘The Community Opera is one of the best projects I’ve ever been involved in.’
ELISE MORTON POSTGRADUATE SOPRANO
ALUMNI
RNCM alumni are an integral part of our DNA, and we are continually proud of everything they are achieving across the industry.
The strong connections we have with graduates from all years of study enable us to develop our reputation on a global scale. Over the past academic year, we had a record number of alumni join us for events around the world, including reunions and recruitment drives in Australia and America, and we welcomed numerous graduates back to participate in student Q&As, open day panels, archive campaigns, fundraising appeals, and public concerts as part of our events programme. We also conferred Associate Membership (ARNCM) on 11 alumni during our 2023 Congregation of Awards, and continued to develop our online community through RNCM Connect, with more than 1,500 members currently utilising the platform for professional development, mentorship, and networking.
THANK YOU
We know that music can transform lives. We see it every day in the next generation of professional musicians we nurture at the start of their journey, in the inspiring work we do with young people and adults across the region, and in the significant projects and initiatives we’re part of which enhance our students’ practice and personal development. We see it in our audiences, too, who come to the RNCM every week to hear the students and touring professionals who are Defining
the Future of Music
.
The RNCM continues to thrive because of our incredibly generous community, and this year we raised £2.85 million, with a further £783,000 committed to future support. Philanthropy plays a vital role in enabling our students to reach their full potential; without your support, we simply could not provide our students with a world-class education and the life-changing opportunities that will lead them into successful and fulfilling careers. Thanks to you, we can continue to champion our talented young musicians as well as build the reputation of the RNCM on the global stage for many more years to come.
‘My time at the RNCM has completely transformed my professional prospects as a musician, and I’m so grateful to have been offered the opportunities here that have led me onto a path I had always hoped for! Thank you so much for your support, I couldn’t have done this otherwise.’
JOSH PYMAN POSTGRADUATE CLARINETTIST
PHOTO CREDITS
ROBIN CLEWLEY: 2-9, 18-19, 21, 22-25
CRAIG FULLER 30-31
VICTORIA HAYDN: 28-29
CHRIS PAYNE: 16-17
ROSCOE RUTTER: 26-27
PETE SHAW: 14-15
CHARLOTTE WELLINGS: 13
