UPBEAT
CELEBRATING SAMUEL
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR AT 150
DANI HOWARD REFLECTS ON HER CAREER TO DATE
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
In March, audiences were treated to a vibrant and fresh take on Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with acclaimed director Jeremy Sams at the helm. RCM singers gave a stunning performance, praised highly in a review by Opera Now for their palpable chemistry, humour and fun.
Photos: Chris Christodoulou
Cover: Phil Rowley
WELCOME TO UPBEAT
Welcome to the summer edition of Upbeat, the Royal College of Music’s publication in which we celebrate the work and successes of our students, alumni and staff.
This edition adopts the theme of Pioneers in Composition, and includes an interview with RCM Senior Research Fellow in composition Dr Mark-Anthony Turnage, whose opera Festen received unanimous praise at its premiere this year at the Royal Opera House. RCM alumna composer Dani Howard shares with us her career journey to date and the crucial role the RCM’s Creative Careers Centre has played in supporting her, and we take a moment to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a composer who showed extraordinary creativity and courage.
News stories include updates on the RCM Museum’s latest exhibition, Kurt Cobain Unplugged, showcasing Cobain’s D-18E Martin guitar used in Nirvana’s iconic 1993 MTV Unplugged performance, plus a prize draw to win one of Cobain’s plectrums used in that performance.
Our students and alumni continue to contribute to the professional music scene, and we salute their success in competitions, new appointments and for inspiring the next generation of young musicians. We also remember those members of the RCM community whom we have lost this year and their contributions to music and society.
As I approach the end of my first year in post as RCM Director, I would like to thank you all for your warm welcome and for the joyous music-making I have had the privilege to experience. The RCM is an incredibly special community, and I am delighted that you are part of it.
James Williams LVO FRCM Director
To be included in the next edition of Upbeat online, don’t forget to email news@rcm.ac.uk by Friday 26 September.
STAY UP TO DATE WITH UPBEAT ONLINE
Upbeat magazine is published three times a year, with a digital version on our website in the autumn and spring, and a printed edition in the summer. If you don’t currently receive the digital editions of Upbeat, sign up to receive it straight to your inbox at www.rcm.ac.uk/subscribe
Director of Communications Talia Hull
Editor Joanna Wyld
Contributors Jacqueline Whitbread, Stephanie Rawlins
Designer May Yan Man
Design www.splashofpaint.com
Contact news@rcm.ac.uk
4 NEWS
The latest news and activities from the Royal College of Music
7
MEET ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ANDREW MOORE
8 ‘I LOVE COMPOSING MORE THAN ANYTHING’
Mark-Anthony Turnage in conversation with Professor Jonathan Cole
10 CELEBRATING SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR
A trailblazing RCM composer turns 150
12 ‘SOME OF THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE!’ Composer Dani Howard on her time at the Royal College of Music
14 ALUMNI UPDATES
16 STAFF UPDATES
18 STUDENT UPDATES
20 OUR SUPPORTERS
22 IN MEMORY
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Francesca Lauri, Ellen Pearson, Philippe Durrant, Lily Mo Browne
Photo: Emma Brown
Photography
IN THE NEWS
RCM SCOOPS ALL FOUR PRIZES AT 2025 KATHLEEN FERRIER AWARDS
Royal College of Music musicians won all four prizes at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2025 – a clean sweep that highlights the exceptional artistry at the College.
First Prize was awarded to mezzo soprano Lily Mo Browne, a current RCM Masters student, who was praised in The Times for her rich voice and her ability to generate expressive and dramatic power. Lily commented: ‘I‘m so thrilled to have won the Kathleen Ferrier this year, having followed the competition and its winners for the past six years. I am extremely grateful for the support, guidance and encouragement I have received from my teachers, mentors and peers over the years, and am excited to see what is in store next.’
Second Prize went to tenor Philippe Durrant, who completed his Master of Performance at the RCM in 2021 and has gone on to sing with Garsington Opera, English National Opera, The Sixteen and the BBC Singers. The Ferrier Loveday Song Prize was awarded to mezzo soprano Ellen Pearson, a 2024 graduate whose flourishing career already includes a place on the Royal Ballet and Opera’s 2025–27 Jette Parker Artist Programme.
Pianist Francesca Lauri received the Help Musicians Accompanist’s Prize. Also a 2024 RCM graduate, she is the current holder of the RCM’s Lord and Lady Lurgan Collaborative Piano Fellowship.
RCM WINS 2025 RIBA LONDON AWARD
The Royal College of Music has been awarded a 2025 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London Award, celebrating the College’s landmark redevelopment by John Simpson Architects.
The prestigious RIBA London Awards honour architectural excellence across the capital with John Nahar, RIBA’s Regional Director of London, praising the winning projects for reflecting a ‘breathtaking display of variety, creativity and purpose’.
The £40 million More Music transformation revitalised the RCM’s historic campus, creating dynamic new spaces and facilities, and fostering an inspirational environment for our global community of students to create, research and perform music. Highlights of the works included a full renovation of the ground floor including a new café – the Carolean, development of the Cotes-Burgan Atrium at the heart of the College, a Performance Hall and Performance Studio, and a new home for the Royal College of Music Museum.
James Williams, Director of the Royal College of Music, said: ‘Our More Music estate has been truly transformative for the College’s community of students, staff and audiences. Alongside two new state-of-the-art venues, John Simpson Architects‘ vision for the space to widen public access to the College has enabled us to welcome thousands of new visitors to the College. It is an honour to have this development recognised in the 2025 Royal Institute of British Architects Awards.’
RCM MUSICIANS AT THE BBC PROMS 2025
The BBC Proms have recently unveiled their 2025 season, which once again showcases the excellence of Royal College of Music students, alumni and professors, who will perform at the world’s biggest classical music festival.
Soprano and alumna Louise Alder takes centre stage to perform at the prestigious Last Night of the Proms, leading the UK‘s biggest classical music celebration. Just weeks earlier, she stars as the Countess in Glyndebourne’s new production of Mozart’s mischievous Le nozze di Figaro – performed both at the Glyndebourne Festival and the BBC Proms – alongside fellow alumnus Huw Montague Rendall as Count Almaviva.
The Proms season opens with the world premiere of The Elements, written especially for the occasion by RCM composition professor and Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen. Also at the First Night, alumnus Gerald Finley performs in Vaughan Williams’ oratorio Sancta Civitas, while in August alumna Hannah Kendall’s Weroon Weroon receives its UK premiere by Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, for whom it was written.
Alumnus Nicholas McCarthy, the world’s only professional one-handed concert pianist, makes his Proms debut with Ravel’s jazzinfused Concerto for the Left Hand with Mark Wigglesworth and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile, John Wilson returns to the Proms with a dazzling programme of orchestral showpieces, from Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé to works by Bernstein and Strauss, while violinist and director Zoë Beyers leads
the Britten Sinfonia at the Bristol Beacon in a compelling programme of Arvo Pärt, Sibelius, Gavin Higgins and Mozart.
RCM singers appear throughout the season, including Elizabeth Watts and Laurence Kilsby in Bliss’ The Beatitudes, Jennifer Johnston in Mahler’s cantata Das klagende Lied, Claudia Huckle in Delius’ epic A Mass of Life with Sir Mark Elder and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hugh Cutting in Handel’s oratorio Alexander’s Feast
Professors at the Royal College of Music, performers at the height of their careers, also play key roles this season. Visiting Professors of Vocal Studies Brindley Sherratt and Nicky Spence both perform in Shostakovich’s operatic tragedy Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, alongside alumna Ava Dodd. Flute professor Adam Walker joins a starry group including guitarist Sean Shibe in a celebration of anniversary composer Boulez’s seminal Le Marteau sans maître
RCM Junior Department students take the spotlight with the National Youth Orchestra’s two Proms this season, exploring intergalactic soundscapes from Holst and John Williams to Pulitzer prize-winner, Caroline Shaw. Meanwhile, RCM alumni and professors perform as orchestral musicians with the world’s leading ensembles, many of which will grace the Proms stage this season.
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John Wilson
Photo: Astrid Ackermann
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Louise Alder
Photo: Will Alder
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Hannah Kendall
Photo: Brian Doherty
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Kurt Cobain‘s
Photo: Phil Rowley
KURT COBAIN’S GUITAR COMES TO THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Kurt Cobain’s legendary Martin D-18E, played during Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance, is currently on display in the UK for the first time as part of Kurt Cobain Unplugged at the Royal College of Music Museum, running from 3 June to 18 November 2025.
The exhibition explores Nirvana’s groundbreaking MTV Unplugged session and reunites two of rock history’s most iconic artefacts – Cobain’s Martin D-18E and his famous olive-green mohair cardigan, worn during the performance – for the first time on display together.
SPIRIOCAST SHOWCASED BY ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC AND STEINWAY
T he Royal College of Music collaborated with Steinway & Sons to host Europe‘s first-ever Spiriocast event organised by an institution, bringing the RCM performance into concert halls and to audiences across the world.
Enter our prize draw at bit.ly/cobainplectrum for your chance to win Kurt Cobain’s plectrum, used for the 1993 MTV Unplugged performance, and own a piece of rock history. The plectrum is one of three Dunlop picks found inside Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E guitar case, currently on display in this exhibition.
The Kurt Cobain Unplugged exhibition delves into the musical legacy of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain and traces the remarkable journey of the iconic guitar, which became the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction in 2020 when it was bought for over $6 million by Australian entrepreneur Peter Freedman AM. Peter is the founder of RØDE Microphones, founding supporter of the Royal College of Music’s Australia Commonwealth Scholarship, and has generously loaned the guitar for this special exhibition.
Alongside these items, a carefully curated selection of Nirvana memorabilia provides insight into the band’s influence, Cobain’s songwriting, and the enduring legacy of Nirvana and their MTV Unplugged performance. The exhibition has been curated by Alan di Perna – one of America’s foremost rock journalists, and Royal College of Museum Curator, Professor Gabriele Rossi Rognoni.
Tickets to Kurt Cobain Unplugged can be booked online at: www.rcm.ac.uk/kurtcobain
Taking place on 7 March 2025, the concert showcased the latest in live performance technology. Steinway & Sons’ revolutionary Spirio | r technology enables live, remote performances from one Spirio piano to others worldwide. The software captures every nuance of a pianist’s touch, recreating an identical musical experience across all connected Spirio instruments. This innovation allows audiences to enjoy live performances in real time, no matter where they are in the world.
The concert featured students from the RCM Keyboard Faculty performing a programme inspired by the RCM Keyboard Festival 2025, including Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for four hands. Thanks to the precision of Spiriocast technology, audiences at Steinway showrooms across Europe tuned in to experience the performance as though they were at the Royal College of Music.
Professor Vanessa Latarche, RCM Head of Keyboard and Associate Director for Partnerships in Asia, commented: ‘At the Royal College of Music, we pride ourselves on pushing boundaries and being at the forefront of musical advancement. Using the Spirio technology in this Spiriocast, the first Spiriocast from an institution in Europe and Asia Pacific, our pianists are able to connect with audiences from around the world. We are delighted to have been collaborating with Steinway & Sons.’
guitar plectrum
MEET ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ANDREW MOORE
Find out more about the new Artistic Director of the Royal College of Music, Andrew Moore, in Upbeat‘s Q&A.
What’s your earliest musical memory?
I recall as a toddler being fascinated by the upright piano that my parents had in their living room and wanting to sit at it and try to play it. It wasn‘t until I started at primary school that I began piano lessons, though a couple of years later when I was offered the chance to learn the cello my piano practice took a back seat...
When did you realise music would be a central part of your life?
My interest in and love of music was encouraged by my parents and grandparents from an early age, and it was a very important part of growing up. As a teenager I knew that I wanted to be involved in music somehow – either as an enthusiastic amateur or professionally – but was fortunate to be able to postpone making a final decision until I was 17 and had to decide between going to university to study economics or to music college! I opted for music college, studying double bass.
If you had to choose your top three pieces of music, what would they be?
I’d pick Dvořák’s Symphony no 9 ‘From the New World’ – the first recording I owned and one of the first pieces I played with a professional orchestra (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) when I was a student. Then JS Bach’s Orchestral Suite no 4 – another childhood memory, this piece was featured in a story magazine for children that came with a tape recording of the piece. I loved the grandeur of the trumpets and drums. And finally, Kern’s Showboat. I love musicals, and Showboat is the one that I return to above all others – the first really iconic piece of that genre in my opinion.
What attracted you to the Royal College of Music?
After 20 years working for orchestras and festivals, I was looking for a role that would give me the chance to play a more active part
in shaping the next generations of musicians, which the role of Artistic Director here at the RCM so wonderfully does.
In three words, how would you describe your early impressions of the Royal College of Music?
Inspiring, curious, fun!
What excites you about developing the RCM artistic programme?
We are really fortunate at the RCM to have the ability to make connections between the artistic and academic programmes and to have so much fascinating research happening here. I’m particularly looking forward to working with colleagues to showcase that through the performance programme, to support the learning experience that our students have, encouraging risk-taking and innovation along the way. I’m excited to put together projects that only an institution like the RCM can – watch this space!
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Artistic Director Andrew Moore
Photo: Lee Thomas
‘I LOVE COMPOSING MORE THAN ANYTHING’
Mark-Anthony Turnage on writing Festen, and 20 years of teaching at RCM
Composing is by nature a solitary activity, but the Royal College of Music Composition Faculty has a strong ethos of collaboration. There’s no better example of this than the enduring friendship between Chair and Head of Composition, Professor Jonathan Cole, and Senior Research Fellow, Dr Mark-Anthony Turnage. Hot on the heels of Turnage’s Olivier Award-winning opera Festen, Upbeat eavesdropped on their conversation.
Jonathan Cole (JC): You’ve been teaching at the College for 20 years, and you’ve taught a whole generation of composers – a very interesting and varied group of people.
Mark-Anthony Turnage (MAT): Yes! And it’s noticeable that those who are most obsessed with composing have great success – you have to be in love with it. Sometimes young composers worry about ‘finding their voice’, and I say, don’t worry about that at the age of 18. Composers should be experimenting –and failing!
JC: You don’t find your voice, it finds you. If we’re composing because we love the music, we can never exhaust that interest. It’s a lifelong love.
MAT: I was at the RCM Junior Department and was so lucky to be taught by Oliver Knussen – he saw that love of composing in me and fed it, not just with music but with literature and painting. While I was there, I wrote a wind quintet called When the Winds Cry and Olly even conducted it in a concert – he hadn’t conducted in London for eight years! He was extraordinary.
It was my other mentor, Hans Werner Henze, who persuaded me to write my first opera, Greek, 40 years ago next year. I didn’t have much confidence but he said, ‘I think you’re a theatrical composer. You’ve got a sense of theatre.’ I wondered, how do you know? I’ve hardly written any vocal music! At the RCM I wrote a song cycle for Melanie Marshall accompanied by her brother Wayne Marshall, called To a Black Dancer, but not much else. It was also at that time that I met Martin Robertson [RCM saxophone professor], who’s been in pretty much everything of mine since.
JC: Another example of somebody with whom you built a relationship as an RCM student that’s lasted 40 years.
MAT: It’s like you and me, as soon as we met, we just clicked. We see each other regularly, not just professionally – I was really glad when you got the job here. I feel that way about Lee Hall, who wrote the libretto for Festen
JC: You have an amazing relationship with Lee; you’re like long-lost brothers, it’s very special.
MAT: He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life, he’s fantastic. We just really get on. He has a great knowledge of opera and what works, and how to be succinct, which is really important. He has such range.
JC: You’ve come to Festen with a lot of operatic experience behind you – what have you learned in that time?
MAT: It sometimes feels like I’m starting from scratch every time. My first opera Greek is rough at the edges – but I quite like that, and as you get better technically you’re in danger of smoothing off those rough edges. I’m quite instinctive with vocal writing, but probably stricter than I realise. What I have learnt is clarity. I still write in a similar way in terms of how I react to the text, but it’s much clearer now.
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Mark-Anthony Turnage
Photo: Phil Rowley
One thing that a lot of people said about Festen is that they could hear every word, and I take that as a massive compliment as I’ve worked hard on that. I don’t tend to write very high because words get lost as soon as singers go stratospheric. If you set text, you want it to be clear and dramatic.
JC: I was really struck by that immediacy of communication in Festen. Everything was in real time; we were living it with the characters rather than observing and making sense of it later.
MAT: I’m also very aware of contrast. There’s a danger of an opera being just recitative, and while there are great recitative operas (like Debussy’s Pelléas), it’s hard to do. When I was working with Lee, I wanted something more formal, because if I have something formal to work with I can break out of that.
JC: There’s a lot of song in Festen, in the choruses and in that haunting moment when Susan Bickley sings a melodic song despite the violence going on around her. Contrast again –brutality but also incredible tenderness.
MAT: That’s the thing that most interests me. People ask why I pick these difficult subjects, but Henze noticed that I always write about the family – I don’t do it consciously, but every one of my operas is about family. People understand family; everyone’s affected by it. I have to include at least one character of great sympathy that the audience identifies with. You can’t predict how people will respond, but Festen was incredibly performed by the whole cast. And the Royal Ballet and Opera were magnificent in every way.
JC: There were audible gasps and a sense of concentration – absolute silence. Word got around and it was packed every night. It’s really important that works like Festen are recognised. When a lot of the arts are devalued, having something so powerful that it can be remembered is really important.
MAT: I had people saying to me that they’d been three times, which was amazing. I’m bad at taking compliments though – you’re only as good as your last piece!
JC: You’re very modest. You come back the next day and get back to work.
MAT: I’ve been asked, ‘how do you do it, what’s the trick, what’s the secret?’ The main thing is that I enjoy composing. I absolutely love it more than anything else.
Joanna Wyld RCM Publications & Content Officer
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Professor Jonathan Cole
Photo: Chris Christodoulou
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Mark-Anthony Turnage
Photo: Phil Rowley
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Alumnus Peter Brathwaite (left) in Festen
Photo: Marc Brenner
Sometimes young composers worry about ‘finding their voice’. Don't worry about that. Composers should be experimenting!
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CELEBRATING SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR
A trailblazing RCM composer turns 150
As we approach the 150th anniversary of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s birthday on 15 August, Upbeat explores his extraordinary legacy and fruitful relationship with the Royal College of Music.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in Holborn, brought up in Croydon, and studied composition at the Royal College of Music with Charles Villiers Stanford.
As RCM Librarian Peter Linnitt explains: ‘We’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth and marking his place in the RCM‘s history. He was one of the first really important composers to come through the College’, where he began studies in 1890 aged 15, initially as a violinist – students ‘began as instrumentalists or vocalists, and if they were good enough at harmony and counterpoint they were allowed to join the composition class.’
Coleridge-Taylor studied at the College for seven years, the last five studying composition with Stanford, whose teaching introduced his students to new music. Shortly after Brahms published his Clarinet Quintet it was performed at the College; Stanford then asked his students to write
their own clarinet quintets. The result was Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor. Stanford was so impressed with the work that he took it to his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, who published it as Coleridge-Taylor’s op 10. This introduced Coleridge-Taylor’s work to a wider European audience than his earlier works achieved.
Coleridge-Taylor was, as Peter puts it, ‘the first internationally important composer to have studied at the College’. Within a year of leaving College he composed the work for which he is most famous, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. Stanford conducted the world premiere at the RCM on 11 November 1898. At the time, the Prince Consort Road building didn’t have a large hall and concerts took place in a metal shed, where the Britten Theatre now sits, affectionately known as the Tin Tabernacle. The concert was keenly anticipated and oversubscribed with people being turned away at the door. Following the performance, Sir Arthur Sullivan noted in his diary: ‘Much impressed by the lad‘s genius. He is a composer, not a musicmaker. The music is fresh and original – he has melody and harmony in abundance, and his scoring is brilliant and full of colour – at times luscious, rich and sensual.’ The critics were overwhelmingly positive about the work – but not the Tin Tabernacle. The College had already made plans to build a new concert hall, but the reviews accelerated their resolve; within three years the new concert hall was built.
Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast was published by Novello, overseen by August Jaeger (Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’), who hailed ColeridgeTaylor as ‘a genius’. Elgar meanwhile insisted that the Three Choirs Festival commission a work from the young composer: ‘I wish, wish, wish you would ask Coleridge-Taylor to do it… he is far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men.’
For College staff, students and alumni, Coleridge-Taylor‘s legacy continues to be felt.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Photo: RCM Museum
The RCM holds the largest collection of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor manuscripts which, as Peter explains, ‘were gifted to us by his widow Jessie and children Hiawatha and Avril.’ In 2022, Assistant Librarian Jonathan Frank found amongst this collection an entirely new discovery: ‘We believe we received the manuscript for Nourmahal’s Song in 1984 as part of a large collection compiled by Hiawatha Coleridge-Taylor. It was then filed away as Nourmahal’s Song and Dance – because Coleridge-Taylor did publish a work of that name in 1900, but that’s a work for solo piano. This is a work for voice and piano. Nobody had any reason to question that until 2022 when we received an enquiry about this piano work and had reason to dig it out from the archive and look at it, and realised this was an entirely different piece. That’s when I got out all the biographies and lists and realised it’s not in any of these books. We’d discovered something quite special.’ A recording soon followed, as well as a live performance featuring RCM musicians.
The RCM Library provided access to manuscripts for a new recording project spearheaded by Historical Bass professor Carina Cosgrave: an album of ColeridgeTaylor‘s Nonet and two of his Novelletten arranged for string quintet, recorded on historical instruments by the Sabi Ensemble for Penny Fiddle records. Carina explains: ‘As I heard more of his music I was curious about this person. How did someone who achieved such high levels of success in both England and America, especially for the time, disappear from concert halls for decades?’ Of the project, she adds: ‘The recording process was a revelation. It was invaluable to have the manuscripts made available to us. Historical instruments and practices provide another way into this music
– we get a little closer to the sound-worlds he was writing for.’
Research into the Coleridge-Taylors is being undertaken by RCM PhD student Tom Edney, who has edited Avril Coleridge-Taylor‘s work. He says, ‘Avril Coleridge-Taylor tirelessly advocated for her father’s music, conducting many performances of it across the globe. That his 150th birthday is being celebrated so publicly would certainly please her.’ Tom’s edition of Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s Comet Prelude was conducted by RCM conductor Sam Scheer in Croydon following collaboration between Croydon Music & Arts and RCM researcher Dr Sarah K Whitfield Sarah says, ‘bringing Avril’s music back to Croydon was an incredible experience; hearing this magical piece was profoundly moving.’ Meanwhile, RCM recorder professor Sarah Jeffery recently arranged and recorded Coleridge-Taylor‘s song Beauty and Song for recorder, published by Schott. RCM Junior Department musicians recently performed Coleridge-Taylor‘s Novelletten, JD violinist and leader Peter Ryan saying: ‘Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Novelletten are four miniatures full of elegance and spirit. I particularly enjoyed the fourth movement because of the relentless momentum, energy and rhythmic drive. We loved performing this work and we hope there will be more opportunities to explore his music in the future.’ There will indeed be opportunities to experience Coleridge-Taylor‘s music within College soon, with a number of performances of his music programmed for the forthcoming academic year. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor‘s star is shining bright once more.
Joanna Wyld RCM Publications & Content Officer
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Manuscript of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Nourmahal’s Song, RCM Library MS 4938a
Photo: RCM
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Carina Cosgrave (left) with the Sabi Ensemble
Photo: John Croft
‘SOME
OF THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE!’
Composer Dani Howard on her time at Royal College of Music
Have you ever wondered about the impact one choice has made on your life? When Dani Howard wrote The Butterfly Effect about her time at the Royal College of Music, she was reflecting on just that – how a single decision can send out ripples that have a seismic impact. Upbeat found out more.
At the age of only 31, Dani Howard has already established an international career as a composer. She specialises in orchestral works, including The Butterfly Effect, performed by the RCM Symphony Orchestra in summer 2024 as part of Professor Colin Lawson’s farewell concert. Dani’s choice to leave Hong Kong, where she grew up, and study at the Royal College of Music, set in motion a number of transformative experiences – including her relationship with the Creative Careers Centre.
I’m really grateful for the Creative Careers Centre. It’s the jigsaw piece that’s missing otherwise; it’s the bit that allows you to find work and make a career
Dani recalls her time at the RCM: ‘They were some of the best years of my life. I’d never studied composition before and didn’t feel I knew how to compose, so the first year was a rollercoaster. But it was amazing to be around music all the time.’ Of studying with Professor Jonathan Cole, Dani says, ‘my lessons were phenomenal. He’s philosophical and so wise; he really gets you thinking. I also realised early on that we didn’t like the same music!’ But through listening to an array of works, Dani found confidence in her own tastes and choices.
Alongside this space to develop came some bracing advice. ‘I would overthink and sweat the small stuff – most composers do. I was taking so long to do so little! One of the best things he ever told me is, “stop treating this like you’re writing a masterpiece.” In other words, get over it and write it – and then write more. He was so right – I’ve grown so much since then that in my published catalogue I’ve included just one piece from my time in College.’
This has instilled in Dani an awareness that her style will continue to evolve, a philosophy reinforced by another RCM composer who inspired her, the late Joseph Horovitz – dedicatee of The Butterfly Effect On one occasion, Dani found him in the College Library, aged 92, and asked him what brought him there. His reply: ‘I’m here to learn.’ Dani describes composers as ‘sponges’, absorbing musical stimuli, and she approached her time at the College in this spirit. ‘I’d look through the Events Guide and plan what to go to. I made it my mission to attend a masterclass of every single instrument or voice, and I did. I learned so much.’
This practicality is central to Dani’s approach. She wrote and still writes pieces for friends, and used the Creative Careers Centre (CCC)
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Dani Howard
Photo: Emma Fenton
composers’ noticeboard for inspiration: if a competition appealed, she would write for it and enter. She also worked part-time at the Centre, where she saw its impact first hand. ‘Get to know Diana Roberts and the team – once they know you’re interested in something, they can put opportunities your way.’
Dani received her first paid commissions through the CCC: the Sensing Spaces exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, and work for the Independent Society of Musicians. ‘I couldn’t get over the fact that I was getting paid to write music – it blew my mind!’ Other RCM friendships also bore fruit: ‘Because I was proactive within the Percussion Faculty, I received a commission from a BBC Young Musician of the Year soloist – he wanted to play a premiere in the semi-finals. I had several paid commissions by the time I left.’
Dani worked as a nanny while building up her composing career, and recommends composers keep an open mind about supporting themselves. Alongside an increasing stream of commissions, the Creative Careers Centre sent her work as a copyist because she’d ‘really enjoyed the engraving module’ with Eric Wilson (now retired).
Eventually, composition outweighed other work. ‘My first big moment was working with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. I won a competition with Classic FM and they commissioned a concert opener, Argentum – it’s still played now!’ Other highlights include her National Youth Orchestra residency, encompassing a commission for the BBC Proms 2024 for 260 young musicians – she encouraged them to suggest ideas to include in the score – and her Trombone Concerto, which won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
What’s next? ‘My number one life goal bucket list piece is about to happen: writing a cello concerto for my former cello teacher in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the orchestra I grew up listening to. It’s a dream.’ Amid all this success, Dani never loses sight of where it all started – and the importance of the Creative Careers Centre. ‘It’s the jigsaw piece that’s missing otherwise; it’s the bit that allows you to find work and make a career. I’m really grateful for the Creative Careers Centre.’
Joanna Wyld RCM Publications & Content Officer
THE CREATIVE CAREERS CENTRE TURNS 25
The Royal College of Music remains grateful to the late Paul Woodhouse and benefactor Peter Willan for the generous gift and support which enabled the department to begin its mission. A series of 25 events took place throughout the 2024/25 academic year to mark 25 years of the Creative Careers Centre. Visit www.rcm.ac.uk/creativecareers
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Dani Howard
Photo: PRS for Music
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Dani Howard during her studies at the RCM
Photos: Andreea Tufescu
ALUMNI UPDATES
PERFORMANCES AND RECORDINGS
Violinist Esther Abrami continues to make waves in the international music world, including the recent release of her new album, Women, featuring music by women composers, and a special event showcasing this repertoire to be held at L’Olympia, Paris on 23 November. Esther also performed at the BAFTAs, and has been featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.
Soprano Camilla Harris will be playing the role of Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème this autumn, and during the summer appears as a Flower Maiden in Wagner’s Parsifal, both at Glyndebourne.
SOHO by Jorge Ramos will be premiered by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 2 July.
Singer-songwriter Paul Vialard will be giving a series of jazz concerts in July alongside cellist Romain Malan. Paul won the Golden Pen for singer-songwriters and the Audience Award at the Georges Brassens 2025 Competition in the South of France. He also won Second Prize and the Radio Alpa Prize at Le Mans Pop Festival Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the ‘A nos chansons’ Competition.
AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS
The Astatine Trio, comprising violinist Maja Horvat, cellist Riya Hamie and pianist Berniya Hamie, have been announced as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists 2025–27, and were recent Second Prize and Special Prize winners at the 2025 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz – becoming the first UK-based ensemble to win a main prize in the competition’s history. Maja has also been announced as the new violinist of the Heath String Quartet.
Soprano Clara Barbier Serrano won Second Prize with her duo partner, pianist Joanna Kacperek, at the Palmares Competition.
Mezzo soprano Fleuranne Brockway won First Prize at the Concours Musical International de Montréal, with baritone Theo Platt winning Third Prize.
Gary Cole was awarded the Medal of the Royal College of Organists (their highest honorary award) at a conferment ceremony at Southwark Cathedral ‘in recognition of distinguished achievement in organ and choral recording.’ This is the first time the RCO Medal has been awarded to a record producer.
The Royal College of Music was victorious across the board in this year’s Kathleen Ferrier Awards, with accolades awarded to several alumni. Tenor Philippe Durrant won Second Prize, mezzo soprano Ellen Pearson won the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize for her rendition of alumna Rebecca Clarke’s The Seal Man, and the Help Musicians Accompanist’s Prize was awarded to pianist Francesca Lauri, RCM alumna and Piano Accompaniment Fellow (turn to page 4 for the full story). Ellen has also been named as a Jette Parker Artist (2025–27) at the Royal Ballet and Opera from September, and she recently gave a recital as part of the Opera Prelude concert series.
Baritone Peter Edge and soprano Sofia KirwanBaez have been named as Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Rising Stars, alongside current student, tenor Hugo Brady
Maria Filippova has been appointed to the position of second flute of the Academy of Ancient Music.
Lecturer in Community Music and Social Justice at the University of Southampton Dr Chiying Lam has recently been appointed as one of the 42 new
Below
Esther Abrami
Photo: Sony Music
Bottom
The Astatine Trio
Photo: Sophie Williams
members of the UK Young Academy. Chiying remarked, ‘I definitely would not be able to do what I do today without the support and guidance of the RCM family.’
Adam Lee has recently been appointed co-principal clarinet of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor Alexander Mackinder won joint First Prize in the fifth Conducting Competition Città di Brescia.
PUBLICATIONS & BROADCASTS
There is a new and exciting addition to the RCM Library in the form of a long-awaited translation of vocal training by Franziska Martienssen-Lohmann. As the grande dame of 20th-century vocal pedagogy she passed these exercises on to her students, one of whom was the great German soprano Elisabeth Grűmmer – who in turn taught both alumna Eleanor Forbes and Chair of Vocal Performance, Professor Janis Kelly. Eleanor has translated Lohmann’s teachings from German into English, saying: ‘This English translation makes Martienssen-Lohmann’s unique vocal pedagogy concept available to an international audience at last.’ Janis added: ‘This is a dream come true for me. I made a film via the RCM which discusses this particular technique and the lineage directly from Manuel García through Stockhausen, Meschert, Martienssen-Lohmann and Elisabeth Grűmmer to myself and Eleanor Forbes.’
Pianist Thomas Kelly was interviewed on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune ahead of his Wigmore Hall recital, at which he played music by Robert Schumann, and Busoni arrangements of Liszt and Brahms.
Conducting alumnus Alastair Levy has published a peer-reviewed article on conducting and leadership, called ‘Making music without making a sound’. In the article, Alastair draws on his experience studying at the RCM with then conducting professor Chris Adey, his initial experience as a conductor, and his subsequent career as a leader, advisor and coach.
Left
Adam Lee
Photo: Ryan Bradley
Near left
Ellen Pearson
Photo: Royal Ballet and Opera
Below left
Gary Cole with fellow award winners
Photo: Simon Jacobs
Bottom left
Eleanor Forbes and Professor Janis Kelly
ALUMNI UPDATES
Below
Bottom
Kate Moore
STAFF UPDATES
Six RCM staff members represented the College at a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace: Professor Robert Adlington, Jennifer Allison, Marie Lloyd, Nicola Peacock, Maxine Smith and Mark Traves
APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS
Cello professor Richard Harwood has been appointed Assistant Head of Strings, with a particular focus on lower strings and chamber music.
RCM trumpet professor Kate Moore was awarded the prestigious Pioneer Award by the International Women’s Brass Conference, the first British recipient of this honour.
Festen by Senior Research Fellow in Composition, Dr Mark-Anthony Turnage, featuring alumnus Peter Brathwaite, won two Olivier Awards. Read more on page 8.
Matthew Ward, Professional Engagements Coordinator of the Creative Careers Centre, has been appointed Musical Director of the Hertfordshire Big Band, the county‘s award-winning jazz orchestra.
PERFORMANCES AND RECORDINGS
Vocal Studies professor Graeme Broadbent will perform in the Royal Ballet and Opera’s autumn season, singing the role of Second Armed Man in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte
Historical Violin professor Adrian Butterfield‘s ensemble, the London Handel Players, has been celebrating its 25th anniversary with a sold-out Wigmore Hall performance, and forthcoming recordings of Leclair and Telemann.
RCM Junior Department Symphony Orchestra conductor Jacques Cohen‘s new piece Lancastria was premiered at the Barbican in March.
Academic Programmes professor Carola Darwin has recorded an album of music for voice and piano by Mathilde Kralik and Johanna MüllerHermann, with pianist Marie-Noëlle Kendall, and has contributed a chapter to Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (CUP, 2026).
Visiting Professor of Horn Stefan Dohr recently gave the premiere of Steingrímur Rohloff’s Horn Concerto, as well as performing Hans Abrahamsen’s Horn Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Right
Mark Traves, Nicola Peacock, Professor Robert Adlington, Jennifer Allison, Marie Lloyd, Maxine Smith
Danny Driver
Photo: Kaupo Kikkas
Photo: Giles Christopher
Professor of piano and contemporary piano Danny Driver gave his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in March. Over the next two seasons, Danny embarks on a series of five solo recitals at Wigmore Hall. Accompanying this series will be recordings of Bach‘s Goldberg Variations and Schumann‘s Symphonic Studies
Composer and RCM Junior Department composition teacher Bushra El-Turk has forthcoming performances including a world premiere at the Equinox Festival in August, a Helsinki Festival performance of her opera Woman at Point Zero and the UK premiere of Oum – A Son’s Quest for His Mother at the Barbican in October.
Composition professors Dr Deirdre Gribbin and Dr Dai Fujikura were both recently featured on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show
As part of their celebrations marking Ravel’s 150th anniversary, the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, recently performed Ravel’s Sites auriculaires orchestrated by composition professor Kenneth Hesketh. The performance was later broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Violin professor Madeleine Mitchell’s London Chamber Ensemble Quartet has received outstanding reviews for their recent album of RCM composers Herbert Howells and Charles Wood. Madeleine also celebrated the music of Sir George Dyson, former Director of the RCM, in a piano trio concert at Leighton House in June.
Academic and composition professor Jonathan Pitkin‘s new audiovisual piece Study no.2: Picket Fence and Chips was shown at the General Assembly of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music at the Opéra de Montpellier, and at the Fédération Belge de Musique Electroacoustique‘s Autumn Waves festival.
Director of Opera Michael Rosewell recently gave a talk as part of the TEDxBath Salon series at the Theatre Royal Bath.
Professor Ashley Solomon, Chair and Head of Historical Performance, and Florilegium, RCM Ensemble in Association, recently completed their latest CD recording for Outhere, Telemann ‘Old and New’ which featured RCM alumna Elizabeth Watts in Telemann’s last composition – his operatic cantata Ino. This disc also includes a rarely recorded concerto for flute and violin with Ashley being joined by baroque violin virtuoso Rachel Podger. The recording received support from The Continuo Foundation.
Tal Walker, Deputy Piano and Chamber Music Teacher at the RCM Junior Department, RCM Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD candidate, has recently released an EP of Debussy’s Préludes – Book 1 with Antarctica Records. Tal recorded these Préludes live at the Royal College of Music.
Below left
Professor Ashley Solomon with Florilegium
Photo: Jared Sacks
Below right
Bushra El-Turk
Photo: Ben McDonnell
Bottom Tal Walker
Photo: Antarctica Records
Below
Daniel Grimwood (adjudicator), Misha Kaploukhii, Radu-Gabriel Stoica, Tin-Lam Ng
STUDENT UPDATES
AWARDS AND PRIZES
In the Brooks Van der Pump English Song Competition Final, the following prize winners were announced: Daniel Barrett won First Prize, Second Prize went to Carys Davies, and Third Prize was awarded to Hugo Brady. In the category of Pianist Awards, First Prize was won by Jorn Quirijnen, Second Prize by Irena Radić and Third Prize by Ethan Heidel
The following students were given vocal awards in the Lies Askonas Competition Final: soprano Charlotte Jane Kennedy won First Prize, soprano Ariana Ricci won Second Prize, with Third Prize going to countertenor Zheng Jiang
In the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize for Piano, First Prize was awarded to Radu-Gabriel Stoica, with Joint Second Prize shared by Misha Kaploukhii and Tin-Lam Ng
Mezzo soprano Lily Mo Browne won First Prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2025; see page 4. Lily will be joining the National Opera Studio for the 2025/26 season, alongside soprano Georgia Melville
Pianist Nikita Burzanitsa won First Prize and the Audience Prize in the Sheepdrove Intercollegiate Piano Competition. The award included a recital at the Newbury Spring Festival. This is the third time that an RCM pianist has won this competition in the past four years.
Magdalene Ho was selected to take part in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Mezzo soprano Ustinya Malinina won the prize for the Young Singer of the Future in the Tokyo International Singing Competition.
Soprano Eve Pearson Maxwell won First Prize in the Ashburnham English Song Awards, performing alongside finalists, soprano Carys Davies and countertenor Zheng Jiang
Pianist Jiaxin Min is now a Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2025, Brussels.
Paul Mnatsakanov won Third Prize in the Val Tidone Competition Silvio Bengalli Piano Prize.
Soprano Natalka Pasicznyk was a semi-finalist in the Aldeburgh New Voices Competition.
Mutong Shao‘s research has been awarded the Graduate Award of the International Symposium on Performance Science.
Mariamna Sherling won the semi-final prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, and Third Prize in the Bach Competition 2025, Leipzig.
Soprano Adja Thomas-Mbaya won First Prize in the Young Hope Division of Les Grandes Voix Competition.
Zvjezdan Vojvodic was a semi-finalist in the Beethoven International Piano Competition.
Soprano Maryam Wocial won Second Prize in the London Handel Festival Competition.
Jacky Zhang has been selected to take part in the Chopin International Piano Competition in October.
Right
Brooks Van Der Pump Competition finalists
Photo: Olivia Grant
Photo: Ian Jones
PERFORMANCES AND APPOINTMENTS
Double bassist Levi Andreassen performed at the Haslemere Festival with the London Mozart Players in May, the culmination of his Haslemere String Competition win earlier in the year. A Cratfield Young Artist, Levi also recently performed in the Concerts at Cratfield concert series in East Suffolk.
Tenor Simon Mascarenhas Carter has been made a Pegasus Opera Company Young Artist.
Doctoral pianist Laura Casas Cambra has released an album called Barefoot, recorded with alumna violinist Inês Delgado
The new woodwind section of Southbank Sinfonia for the 2025/26 season has filled five out of the eight chairs with RCM students: Brioni Crowe (flute), Will Hartley (bassoon), Christian Hoddinott (clarinet), Latchen Kinghorn (clarinet) and Annabelle Pizzey (oboe).
Baritone Sam Hird has been made a Jette Parker Artist (2025–27) at the Royal Ballet and Opera from September 2025. Sam also went on as cover twice at the Royal Opera in Telemann’s Pimpione
Violinist Betania Johnny has earned a place on the Master of Music course at the Manhattan School of Music, starting in
August 2025. Betania has been awarded a full-tuition scholarship, and is currently crowdfunding on GoFundMe to support her living expenses.
Will Kidner has been given the bassoon position on the Philharmonia Orchestra Fellowship Scheme.
Soprano Henna Mun will be returning to Glyndebourne to originate the role of Phyllis in The Railway Children by Dr Mark-Anthony Turnage
Gwydion Rhys’ orchestral work Mistico was given its world premiere in Cardiff by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jac van Steen.
Flautist Samantha Rowe has been given the flute/piccolo position on the Glyndebourne Pitch Perfect Scheme.
Tenor Marcus Swietlicki went on as cover as Knappen in Parsifal at Glyndebourne.
Bass Gabriel Tufail Smith made his Glyndebourne debut as Un Ufficiale in Rossini‘s The Barber of Seville
Top left Adja Thomas-Mbaya wearing Edeline Lee
Above
Gwydion Rhys (second from left) with his fellow Composition: Wales 2025 composers
Photo: Rachel Naylor
SUPPORTING THE FUTURE OF MUSIC
From becoming an RCM Friend to leaving a gift in your Will, there are many ways you can support the Royal College of Music.
For more information, please visit www.rcm.ac.uk/ support
Alternatively, contact the Development team at dae@rcm.ac.uk
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS
Music has the power to transform lives. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, generations of gifted students from around the world have been nurtured and trained at the Royal College of Music. We would like to thank all those listed below, as well as those who wish to remain anonymous, who have made donations of £1,000 or more between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025.
We would also like to thank those who have pledged a gift to the RCM in their Will.
The RCM Legacy Ensemble was launched in 2019 to acknowledge the generosity of those who pledge a gift to the RCM in their Will and to celebrate the life-changing impact of the bequests we receive.
Founding Patrons
Amaryllis Fleming Foundation
The Estate of George Frederick Burgan
The Estate of Basil Coleman
Victor Ford Foundation on behalf of Ramona & Trevor Swale
The Croucher Hong Kong Charitable Trust
The Estate of Christopher Hogwood CBE HonDMus
Kingdom Music Education Group
Sandro & Rena Lavery HonRCM
The Leverhulme Trust
The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Geoffrey Richards HonRCM & Valerie Richards
The Estate of Neville Wathen
Ruth West HonRCM & the late
Dr Michael West
Garfield Weston Foundation
The Wolfson Foundation
Leadership Supporters
The Estate of Jill Anderson
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
Jane Barker CBE FRCM
Blüthner Pianos
Andrea Bocelli Foundation
G & K Boyes Charitable Trust
The Derek Butler Trust
Philip Carne MBE HonRCM & Christine Carne
The Cleminson Family Trust
Meredith & Denis Coleman
Colt Clavier Collection Trust
The Estate of Thomas Cottrell
The Estate of John & Marjorie Coultate
The Estate of Jocelyn Cruft
The Estate of John & Sylvia Daughtry
The Estate of Margaret Dewey
The Estate of Dr John Donnelly
The Foyle Foundation
The Estate of Albert Frost
The Harbour Foundation
The Harry & Gylla Godwin Charitable Trust
HEFCE
Linda Hill HonRCM & Tony Hill
The Victor and Lilian Hochhauser Foundation
Sara Nelson Horner
The Harry and Gylla Godwin Charitable Trust
The Humphrey Richardson Taylor Charitable Trust
Community Jameel
Kirby Laing Foundation
Leonora Countess of Lichfield
The Linbury Trust
Philip Loubser Foundation
The Estate of William Mealings
The Mirfield Trust
Oak Foundation
The Estate of Iris Alleyne PercySmith
The Polonsky Foundation
Pureland Foundation
The Julia & Hans Rausing Trust
The Reed Foundation & The Big Give Christmas Challenge
The Estate of Michael Rimmer
The Estate of Stephen P Roberts
Victoria, Lady Robey CBE HonRCM
The Estate of Emma Rose
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851
The Segelman Trust
Dasha Shenkman OBE HonRCM
The Estate of Gerald Charles Webster
The Estate of Nancy Ann Wolfers
Principal Supporters
The Estate of Maureen Hyacinth Adams
Jane Avery in memory of Robert Avery
C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik AG
Dr Linda Beeley
Lord Black & Mark Bolland
Ian Boag
The Estate of Heather Curry
The Victor Dahdaleh Foundation
Peter & Annette Dart
The Drapers’ Company
The Fishmongers’ Company
Martin Fraenkel
J Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust
The Estate of Brian Hartley
The Headley Trust
Jules Hess & the late Tony Hess
JMC
The Estate of Frida Betty Koganovitch
James & Margaret Lancaster
John Lewis Partnership
Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust
The Estate of Sir Neville Marriner FRCM
Rosemary Millar HonRCM & Richard Millar
Michael & Dorothy Needley
John Nickson & Simon Rew
The Estate of Sheila & Christine Partridge
The Charles Peel Charitable Trust
Pro Musica Ltd
The Estate of Prudence Raphael née Gaffikin
The Estate of Charles Stewart
Richardson
Leopold de Rothschild 1959 Charitable Trust
Roland Saam
The Estate of Humphrey Searle CBE FRCM
Alethea Siow & Jeremy Furniss
Miss Kathleen Beryl Sleigh Charitable Trust
The Peter Sowerby Foundation
Steinway & Sons
Betty & the late Robert Sutherland
Ian & Meriel Tegner
The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation UK
Mrs Lynette Tiong
Sandra Treagus
The Estate of Ivor Charles Treby
The Estate of Gweneth Urquhart
Van Cleef & Arpels
Vaseppi Trust
Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement
Bob & Sarah Wigley
Henry Wood Accommodation Trust
The Worshipful Company of Musicians
Yan Zhang & Yinghong Chiu
Major Supporters
E B M Charitable Trust
Richard Goulding
Cynthia (Morey) Jennings
Jerwood Foundation
Peter Freedman AM
The Estate of David William Patterson
The Risman Foundation
Mimi & Colin Watts
Westminster City Council
Supporters
Robert Anderson
The Robert Anderson Trust
Ernesto Bertarelli
The Maria Björnson Memorial Fund
Graham Brookman
The Brooks Van Der Pump Charitable Trust
Peter Brooks & Kirsty Anderson
Andrew Bruce
Il Circolo - Italian Cultural Association London
Camellia NPT UK
Catherine Clarke
Noël Coward Foundation
Diane Davies
The Gilbert & Eileen Edgar Foundation
The Patrick & Helena Frost Foundation
The Hargreaves and Ball Charitable Trust
L G Harris Trust
Poppy Holden
The Houston Family
International Music & Art Foundation
Melba Opera Trust
David James
Richard & Susan Jarvis
Karaviotis Foundation
Ruth Keattch
The Honourable Society of the Knights of the Round Table
David & Mary Laing
LIBER Foundation
Dr Susan Lim & Deepak Sharma
Sir Sydney & Lady Lipworth
The London Women's Clinic Foundation
Lotti Masterson
The Mills Williams Foundation
The Howard & Abby Milstein Foundation
Old Possum’s Practical Trust
Opperby Stokowski Collection Trust
Marian & Gordon Pell
The Phillimore Trust
The Stanley Picker Charitable Trust
Richard Price FRCM & Sue Price
Russell Race
Mark Redman
Hilda Scarth
The Estate of Richard Silver
South Square Trust
Peter & Dimity Spiller
Stephen Stuart-Smith
Tait Memorial Trust
Lisa Thomas
The Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation
Anne Wadsworth OBE & Brian
Wadsworth
Lady Walters
The Estate of Christine Ann Williams
The Wyseliot Charitable Trust
Dr Richard Zheng & Mr Paul Hill
Core Contributors
Abinger Hammer Village School Trust
Anglo-Norse Society
The Estate of Marianne Barker
John & Halina Bennett
Robin & Alice Berkeley
The Hon Christopher Bellew
Hilary Birch
Gary & Eleanor Brass
Chichester Charitable Trust
Sir Anthony Cleaver FRCM & Lady Cleaver
The Ann Driver Trust
Catherine James & David Edwards
The Estate of Audrey Fryer
Dr Chris Gibson-Smith
Peter Granger
Richard Hamilton
The Herbert Howells Trust
The Estate of Dolores P Jones
Professor Colin Lawson CBE FRCM
John & Jackie Lower
Charles & Dominique Lubar
The Hon Richard Lyttelton HonRCM & Romilly Lyttelton
David Mildon
Ellen Moloney
Richard & Minako Mountford
Judy & Terence Mowschenson
William Newsom
Northern Trust
Nandu & Jane Patel
Gordon Palmer Charitable Trust
The Estate of Roselyn Ann Clifton
Parker
Kevin Porter HonRCM
Catherine Quinn
Christopher & Zosia Road
Alan Sainer
Sarah Sillem
Janis Susskind OBE HonRCM
Dr Nancy Uscher
The Wall Trust
Dr Paula Walter & Dr Magnus
Walter
James Williams & Edward Lidster
Professor Lord Winston & the late Lady Winston
Moira Witty GRSM ARCM
The Worshipful Company of Saddlers
We are grateful to ABRSM for their significant contribution, and all those who give anonymously.
RCM Legacy Ensemble
Dr Emma Adlard
Robert Anderson
Mr Robert C Andrews
Mrs Kathleen Atkins
Christopher Ball
Margaret Barfield
Mrs Jane Barker CBE FRCM
Mr Brian Barker
Elizabeth Bates
John Beech
John & Halina Bennett
Lady Eve Bergman ARCM LRAM
John Bertalot
Lord Black & Mr Mark Bolland
Mrs Elizabeth Blackman
Helen Brunner
Mrs Brenda Bunyan
Miss Valerie Byrom-Taylor
Sir Roger & Lady Carr HonRCM
Mr Rupert Chalk
Mr Chris Christodoulou HonRCM
Daphne Clarke
Sir Anthony Cleaver FRCM
Colin Coombs
Gordon & Penny Cooper
Julie Craig
Mr Colin Cree ARCM
Mrs Katia de Peyer
William Dinning
Mr Paul Duffy
Mrs Marion Dyer
Mr John East
Mrs Catherine James Edwards
Scott Elkins
Pete Fozard
Donald Fraser HonRCM
Sarah Gibb
Olivia Graham
Lady Victoria Harrison
Lily Harriss HonRCM & Julian
Harriss
Mr Michael Hodges
Ms Poppy Holden
Professor Peter Holgate
Susan Holland
David Holohan
Bryan Husband
Michael Kadwell
Karaviotis Foundation
Bryan Kelly
Professor Pat Kendall-Taylor
Mr Nicholas King FRCM
Mr Matthew Knight
Professor Colin Lawson CBE FRCM
John Lawson
Dr Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh
Marco Livingstone
Sue Lyons
Mr Neville McDonough
Kenneth & Daphne Midwood
Lorraine Migliorini
Miss Madeleine Mitchell FRSA
MMus GRSM ARCM
Elizabeth Mitchell
Ellen Moloney
Jennifer Neelands
Ms Avril Nelson & Mr Graham
Fearnhead
Mr John Nickson & Mr Simon
Rew
Michael Normington
Mr Humphrey Norrington OBE FRCM
Terry & Valerie Osborne
Caroline Elizabeth Page
Dame Janet Ritterman DBE HonDMus
Victoria, Lady Robey OBE HonRCM
Iain Fowler HonRCM & Robert Rose
Mrs Hilda Scarth
Christopher Scott
Mr William & Mrs Valerie Shackel
Dasha Shenkman OBE HonRCM
Ms Barbara Simmonds
Duncan Sparkes
Stephen Stuart-Smith
Kenny Sturgeon
Susan Sturrock HonRCM
Mr Robert Sutherland
Ms Frances Tait
Barbara Tanner
Anton Tasker
Patricia & Kevin Thompson
Kyra von Schottenstein
Baroness Fleet CBE
Anne Wadsworth OBE & Brian
Wadsworth
Caroline Wallis-Newport
Colin Watts
Timothy Wilcox
James Williams & Edward Lidster
Professor Lord Robert Winston
Dr Richard Zheng & Mr Paul Hill
IN MEMORY
career highlights include working directly with conductors Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Andrew Davis and composers Kodály, Stravinsky and Boulez; recording with The Beatles and Kate Bush; and recording film soundtracks including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Oliver! David was devoted to his family and was married to Valerie for 63 years. He died aged 89 after a long illness, and is survived by Valerie, their three children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
The Royal College of Music is saddened by the death of Jazz and Lead Trombone Professor Richard Edwards, who began teaching at the College in 1993. One of the most scintillatingly talented brass players that the UK has ever produced, Richard started his professional life in the Band of the Irish Guards. Uniquely versatile, he was in high demand from the start of his freelance career: he worked with a staggeringly stellar line up of ensembles and artists, ranging from Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra through to the LSO, LPO, ROH and London Brass, which he joined in 1991. As a studio musician, he played on several hundred film soundtracks, and was almost never without his own chair in the West End. From a personal perspective, he was one of life’s great enthusiasts, passionate about his family, friends, music and good food. He was one of the gentlest and most thoughtful people it has ever been my privilege to meet: quietly and generously supportive to his colleagues, and always kind to young musicians. He will be sorely missed by the Brass Faculty at the RCM, and by his legions of friends, by whom he was dearly loved.
Amos Miller, Head of Brass
Born in 1936, David Butt was a distinguished flautist and piccolo player who was Principal Flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for 38 years from 1960 – his performance of The Sailor’s Hornpipe delighted Last Night of the Proms audiences. In 1978 David was appointed to the teaching staff at the Royal College of Music, where he was a distinguished professor for over 20 years. In 1982 he was made HonRCM. David’s many
Beloved Royal College of Music pianist Yining Emily Hoh, known as Emily Hoh, passed away in December 2024 aged 27, after a year-long battle with cancer. Emily completed her Masters in Collaborative Piano with distinction at the RCM (2020–22) under the tutelage of Simon Lepper, Roger Vignoles and Kathron Sturrock, after earning a first-class Bachelor‘s degree in Psychology at University College London. Emily was awarded the piano prizes in the RCM Lieder and English Song Competitions, and the first piano prizes at the Royal Over-Seas League Awards and the inaugural Ashburnham English Song Competition. She was a Britten Pears Young Artist, and gave performances at the Princess Alexandra Hall, Wigmore Hall and Snape Maltings. An exceptional listener – a quality which characterised her collaborative playing – she showed a rare balance of gentleness and dry wit. As a musician she was instinctive, sensitive, and encouraged her collaborators to take risks. As a friend, sister and daughter she was always devoted and kind. She was a total credit to the RCM, as well as the other communities of which she was a part.
Hugo Brady, RCM tenor
Above
Richard Edwards
Photo: Claire Chevalier
Below
David Butt
Right
Emily Hoh
Born in 1948, Simon Lindley was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and studied organ at the Royal College of Music in the late 1960s. After a post at St Albans Cathedral, Simon became Organist and Master of the Music at Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster) from 1975 to 2016. He was also Leeds City Organist during this period. A gifted and generous musician, Simon enjoyed a remarkable career as an organist and conductor, and he embodied a traditional brand of skilled and rounded musicianship rooted in the organ and choral fields. The recipient of many awards and two honorary doctorates, he was President of the Royal College of Organists 2000–2003.
Andrew McCrea, Academic Programmes professor
James Lockhart, alumnus and former Head of Opera at the Royal College of Music, has died at the age of 94. He studied organ with George Thalben Ball and piano with Eric Harrison between 1951 and 1954. His theory teacher was Herbert Howells, and he studied conducting with Charles Thornton Lofthouse and Richard Austin. He gained an ARCM in solo organ in 1951 and was awarded the E Hecht Prize. In 1962, James was appointed as teacher of Opera and Drama Training, becoming Head of Opera in 1986. He was made FRCM in 1987. Outside the College, his prestigious career included roles as music director of Welsh National Opera and the first British-born music director at a German organisation, the Staatstheater Kassel. He appeared on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs in 1970.
Dr Leonard Polonsky passed away on 14 March at his home in New York, surrounded by loved ones. In 1985, Leonard established the Polonsky Foundation to support a range of cultural heritage initiatives, including fostering excellence in the arts. Since 2008, The Polonsky Foundation has provided significant support to the RCM, and in 2016, Leonard was conferred with Honorary Membership. His generosity and support, and that of his family and Trustees, enriched student life through the ever-occupied Polonsky Piano Room and the many visits of Polonsky Visiting Professor,
Maxim Vengerov. The Foundation’s support for scholarships, the RCM Chamber Music Circle, and student bursaries for the Aspen Music Festival has been vital to the development of the RCM‘s talented musicians.
Robert Sutherland, alumnus and former professor at the Royal College of Music, has died at the age of 94. He studied piano with Angus Morrison and singing with Herbert Arnold Smith between 1953 and 1956, and became a professor at the College in 1977. He later worked closely with Maria Callas, writing Maria Callas – Diaries of a Friendship (published 1999). His funeral was attended by RCM Receptionist Maxine Smith and Professor & Chair of Vocal Performance Janis Kelly, who shared memories of Robert. Maxine recalled, ‘Robert was not only a great pianist, but a kind, humorous and generous man. On my visits to his home in Scotland I witnessed his appreciation of his friends and his wonderful celebrations. I will always cherish my memories of Robert.’ Janis added, ‘Robert was my song coach, and throughout my postgraduate studies and Opera School he opened my eyes to the nuances of song, poetry and communication. Our heartfelt condolences go to his family, and especially his husband, Ringland Boyd.’
Robin White, a composer and conductor who studied at the Royal College of Music, has died at the age of 73. Between 1964 and 1967, Robin studied singing with Frederick Sharp, piano with Peter Element, double bass with Adrian Beers, conducting with Vernon Handley, and theory with Bryan Kelly. He gained an ARCM in singing teaching in April 1966 and a GRSM in 1967. Specialising in light orchestral music, Robin made numerous recordings, including Edwardian light music on Chandos, featured on Classic FM, and Noël Coward’s ballet scores with the City of Prague Philharmonic. He appeared with his own Alban Voices in an episode of Eastenders, and his arrangements have been broadcast by BBC orchestras on BBC Radio 2.
Above
Dr Leonard Polonsky with RCM Patron HM King Charles III
Photo: Chris Christodolou
Below left James Lockhart with Queen Elizabeth II in the Britten Theatre
Photo: Chris Christodolou
Left
Robert Sutherland with Lavinia Hankinson, Dame Janet Baker and Dame Janet Ritterman
Photo: Chris Christodolou
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