Spring Season 2017 Announced
Tuesday 6 December 2016
We're delighted to announce the Royal College of Music's Spring Season 2017.
We will be welcoming host of internationally acclaimed musicians to share their vast knowledge and experience in an engaging masterclass series, with piano superstar Lang Lang, violin virtuoso and Polonsky Visiting Professor of Violin Maxim Vengerov and distinguished pianist Angela Hewitt all working with the College’s exceptional students. In addition, Nicola Benedetti returns to the College, leading an informal rush-hour concert of baroque classics with a group of top RCM students.
Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer David Lang will be Composer in Residence for our American-focused spring 2017 season. Lang’s residency from 25-27 January features four UK premieres, with talented RCM musicians performing solo piano works, chamber music and large-scale symphonic works by the American composer across three concerts. The final concert of the RCM residency sees Timothy Lines conduct an unmissable programme featuring Lang’s Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated simple song #3, made popular by its use in the 2015 Paolo Sorrentino film Youth. Lang will also work with RCM composers in a public masterclass, providing a revealing insight into his craft.
Stephen Johns, Artistic Director of the RCM, said: ‘I am delighted that once again we have a plethora of world-renowned musicians visiting the RCM, inspiring our students through informative masterclasses and leading RCM ensembles in captivating performances. It is particularly exciting that David Lang has agreed to join us as this season’s Composer in Residence. He is one of the leading figures in contemporary music today, with a compositional style that defies categorisation, and it will be a thrilling experience for RCM students to work with him.’
Music from across the Atlantic forms the core of the RCM’s spring programme, with the American Frontiers series showcasing the work of composers from the musical melting pot of the USA. RCM New Perspectives celebrates John Adams’ 70th birthday with a performance of his highly imaginative clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons, From The Soundhouse presents George Crumb’s seminal work Black Angels, the RCM’s annual keyboard festival, America Calls!, highlights the music of composers who have lived and worked across the pond and a special chamber series delves into the unique sounds inspired by its shores.
Exciting British conductor Nicholas Collon directs the RCM Symphony Orchestra on 9 and 10 March in a performance of Mahler’s epic Symphony no 6, while musicians from the Utrecht Conservatorium visit the College to join the RCM Classical Orchestra in performing the music of Carl Maria von Weber.
The RCM stages two opera productions in the spring, presenting Handel’s Faramondo in conjunction with the London Handel Festival, before ending the season with the UK’s first staged production of Rameau’s French baroque opera, Les fêtes d’Hébé in a new collaboration with Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles.
Visit www.rcm.ac.uk/events to view all events. RCM Friends can now take advantage of a week of priority booking before our Spring Season goes on general sale on Wednesday 14 December.
