Royal College of Music Celebrates International Women's Day
Monday 22 February 2016
The Royal College of Music is delighted to announce its inaugural Women in Music at the RCM celebration on Tuesday 8 March 2016. Coinciding with International Women’s Day, the RCM’s diverse programme of events celebrates the finest female exponents from the world of classical music.
Exceptional female musicians are firmly rooted in the RCM’s history, from the mill girl and brickmaker’s daughter among the first twenty five female RCM scholars in 1883, through the many illustrious alumnae that have studied at the College, including soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and cellist Natalie Clein, to name but a few. Today, women comprise over 50% of the RCM’s student body.
One of the RCM’s most notable alumnae, Amaryllis Fleming, an outstanding cellist and later professor at the College, is immortalised by the College’s Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall.
During Women in Music at the RCM, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the day’s lunchtime concert live from the Royal College of Music, featuring the Albany Trio, former RCM Junior Fellows. The acclaimed Piano Trio will perform works by Rebecca Clarke and Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir, alongside the world premiere of Judith Bingham’s The Orchid and its Hunters. Bingham’s work was commissioned for the Albany Trio, with support from the Fidelio Trust.
Internationally renowned pianist Imogen Cooper mentors RCM pianists in a public masterclass, and elsewhere student workshops take place with contemporary multi-percussionist Genevieve Wilkins and leading British composer Anna Meredith.
The RCM welcomes back alumnae Amy Green and Charlotte Harding who present their latest collaboration, ‘Over 100 years of Women and the Saxophone’, which celebrates the pioneering female saxophonists, composers and bandleaders who were integral to the development and promotion of this instrument.
Throughout the day an interactive exibitition in the RCM foyer shines a spotlight on RCM Women in Music from the last 100 years.
Women in Music at the RCM was conceived by Diana Roberts, Creative Careers Centre Manager, and Lynnette Easterbrook, Student Services Manager, who said: “Women have always made music: as performers, composers, arrangers, instrument-makers and more, and women have been making music at the Royal College of Music since its foundation. We are delighted to celebrate the diverse range of female talent and creativity at the RCM.”
Visit www.rcm.ac.uk/womeninmusic to see all of the day's events and to book.
