RCM alumni and affiliates awarded New Year’s Honours in 2021

Wednesday 6 January 2021

Members of the Royal College of Music community have been recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List, including cellist Natalie Clein and pianists Wayne Marshall and Barry Douglas.

RCM cello professor Natalie Clein has been awarded an OBE for services to music, in acknowledgment of her distinguished career comprising musical performance and teaching. After coming to widespread attention for winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition at the age of 16, Clein went on to study at the Royal College of Music. During her time as a student, she was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rosebowl by RCM President, HRH The Prince of Wales.

RCM keyboard alumni in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List include Wayne Marshall and Barry Douglas. Marshall was a student at Chetham’s School of Music from 1971 to 1979, after which he won a Foundation scholarship to the RCM. Known as a pianist, organist and conductor, he is also a Fellow of the RCM and receives an OBE for services to music. Barry Douglas, an international concert pianist, spent four years studying at the RCM, and now provides RCM pianists with outstanding tuition as Visiting Professor of Piano. He was awarded an OBE in 2002, and, as of 2021, now holds a CBE.

Receiving an MBE from the Queen this year is strings alumnus Bradley Creswick, a long-time leader of the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Creswick studied at the RCM before moving to Newcastle in 1984 to join the then-titled Northern Sinfonia, becoming well-known for his moving rendition of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending.

Another CBE recipient this year is composition alumnus Professor Julian Anderson, who held the position of Head of Composition at the RCM from 1999 to 2004, and has enjoyed much success as a composer of solo, chamber and orchestral works, such as his Piano Concerto The Imaginary Museum.

Also recognised this year is conductor Professor Jane Glover, an RCM Fellow, who was made a dame for services to music, and RCM Council member Guy Weston, knighted for services to philanthropy and charity.

Read more about the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2021 on the gov.uk website.

Image credits:

Natalie Clein: Neda Navaee

Barry Douglas: Benjamin Ealovega

Wayne Marshall: Charlie Best