A New Creative Partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts
Friday 9 December 2016
The Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Arts are delighted to announce a new creative partnership.
The collaboration will see RCM musicians curate a series of concerts at the Royal Academy over the next year. Under the series title ‘In Tune with…’ each performance will feature RCM musicians taking inspiration from the ideas, themes and artworks featured in the special exhibitions.
The inaugural event takes place today, Friday 9 December, as part of the Abstract Expressionism exhibition. Featuring alumni saxophone ensemble, the Laefer Quartet, and RCM professor Kyle Horch, the concert will include the premiere of a work by RCM composer Andrew Chen.
Looking ahead to 2017, future events will explore RA exhibitions including the ‘Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932’ and ‘America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s’.
Caroline Douglas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society said: ‘In Tune with… is a wonderful new series and initiative between the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Arts providing an exciting opportunity for talented young musicians to play in public.’
The partnership was born out of two successful collaborations at the Royal Academy in early 2016: a performance by alumni recorder quartet BLOCK4 inspired by the exhibition ‘In the Age of Giorgione’ and a dynamic evening of art and music as part of their Sumer Sounds exhibition.
RCM recorder player Katie Cowling, who performed as part of the Sumer Sounds exhibition said of the experience: ‘Performing in the gallery removed the unnatural barrier of the stage from between performer and audience, allowing both to be immersed in the two art forms. To choose music based on a painting really changed the way that I looked at the art and the way in which I played the piece.’
The partnership has been generously supported by Dasha Shenkman OBE and curated by the RCM’s flagship Creative Careers Centre, which offers bespoke careers advice, guidance, referrals, resources and a broad spectrum of professional opportunities for up to five years after graduation.
Photography by Nick Gurney
