Professor Colin Lawson Appointed CBE

Friday 10 June 2016

Professor Colin Lawson, Director of the Royal College of Music, has been appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2016 for his services to music and music education across his illustrious career.

A clarinettist of international renown and a pioneer of historically-informed performance practise, Professor Colin Lawson recently celebrated 10 years as Director of the Royal College of Music. During this time he has maintained the RCM as a world-leading conservatoire and shaped the College’s vision for the future, ensuring the RCM continues to provide the most exceptional musical education for future generations of talented students.

Professor Lawson comments; ‘To receive this award is a great honour and recognition of the dedicated work put in by all those at the Royal College of Music. The RCM has a spectacular history and we have a duty to innovate and future-proof this wonderful place of learning and creativity for future generations of exceptional young musicians.’

Professor Colin Lawson has continually propelled the Royal College of Music to the top of league tables and the recent QS World University Rankings 2016 ranked the RCM top for Performing Arts in the UK and joint third in the world. Employability for RCM students is brighter than ever with 100% of graduates who responded to a recent survey reporting that they were employed or engaged in further study.

The RCM’s extraordinary performance opportunities have also been cited by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) who commented that the RCM ‘sustains one of the richest and most intensive programmes of public performance of any conservatoire in the world.’