Seven Seeds Wins Royal Philharmonic Society Award

Wednesday 11 May 2016

The Royal College of Music is delighted to announce that the Seven Seeds project has won the Learning and Participation category of the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. 

The three-year project coordinated by the Tri-borough Music Hub and its strategic partners – the Royal College of Music, Royal Albert Hall and Aurora Orchestra – saw a new work created by RCM alumnus John Barber and librettist Hazel Gould in collaboration with the young participants and professional arts organisations. 

L-R: Julia Roderick (Aurora Orchestra), Stuart Whatmore (Tri-borough Music Hub), Hayley Clements (Royal College of Music) and Paul Munday (Royal Albert Hall) with their RPS Award

Hayley Clements, Head of Learning and Participation, said: ‘The Royal College of Music is delighted to have been part of the ambitious Seven Seeds project. Our talented students have worked with many of the children from the Tri-borough, learnt from school teachers and performed alongside professional players.’ 

The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Music Awards are the UK’s most important awards for live music, recognising not only the calibre of today's classical musicians, but also those who push creative boundaries to produce engaging and exciting work.

Seven Seeds received its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 June 2015. Students from the Royal College of Music performed alongside more than 1,200 young people from 47 primary schools, 3 SEN schools and 13 secondary schools across the Tri-borough area (Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham) and musicians from Aurora Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Albert’s Band, The Bach Choir, students from the Royal Academy of Music, Chickenshed Theatre, professional soloists and conductor Nicholas Collon. 

The project was commissioned by the Tri-borough Music Hub and received generous funding support from the John Lyon’s Charity, the Mercer’s Company and the Golsoncott Foundation.