Celebrating the More Music campaign

More Music: Reimagining the Royal College of Music Campaign (2015–2022) touched all aspects of the Royal College of Music (RCM), from creating dynamic new spaces and facilities, to a new home for the RCM Museum. All of this has helped to foster an inspirational environment in which our students can create, research and perform music.

In 2022, we were delighted to announce the successful completion of the More Music: Reimagining the Royal College of Music Campaign, which raised over £40 million. This included £25 million for our new facilities, over £11 million for our endowment fund to support scholarships, and over £5 million for projects to create a lasting legacy from which our current and future students, staff and members of our community benefit.

The More Music Campaign was set within the context of a history of committed philanthropy since our founding in 1882. The Campaign began in 2012 and was launched publicly in 2015 by the former Prince of Wales, President of the Royal College of Music and Patron of the More Music Campaign, now HM King Charles III, Patron of the College.

The main goals of the Campaign were to raise funds for an ambitious and vital new building development, to augment our endowment fund to support scholarships, and to raise funds for innovative core projects and outreach activities, all to consolidate our status as a world-leading conservatoire for teaching, learning and research.

Thanks to funds raised by the Campaign, the building underwent dramatic change, with several new facilities and spaces being developed. Some of the main highlights of the works included a full renovation of the ground floor Café, development of the brand-new Cotes-Burgan Atrium at the heart of the College, the Performance Hall and Performance Studio. These spaces were fully mobilised in April 2021 to be utilised and enjoyed by staff and students.

Make an Entrance Appeal

A key part of the campaign was the Make an Entrance Appeal, which ran throughout the summer of 2019 to fund the revitalisation of our historic Bloomfield building’s grand entrance.

The Royal College of Music Entrance Hall and Foyer Hall have been in constant use for more than 125 years. Thanks to the generosity of 178 supporters, who collectively donated more than £75,000, we have transformed these spectacular spaces, making them more open and accessible, so that everyone can participate in the rich musical life of the RCM.

The transformation included preservation of our celebrated mosaic floor, new and improved Box Office and Reception desks and new handrails, ensuring better access for all who visit the College.

New spaces at the RCM

The 138 seat Performance Hall is a space for ensemble performances and orchestral rehearsals. It boasts a retractable stage, a Fazioli grand piano, comprehensive technical infrastructure and variable acoustics, providing versatility for the range of events staged by the College including masterclasses, talks, concerts and screenings. The Performance Studio is both an intimate concert venue, equipped with a harpsichord and chamber organ for historical performance, and home to the world leading Performance Simulator. 

Launched in Autumn 2021, the Weston Discovery Centre is a flexible, multi-use space connected to the RCM Museum, with a large selection of instruments made accessible for museum visitors to play and explore freely. Another feature is its interactive composition wall, Make Music with Movement, which enables its users to generate a unique composition by imitating three instruments’ playing movements – guitar, piano and flute – or simply by moving around. The room also has a projector and screen installed, so can also be converted into a learning space for lectures, meetings, musical demonstrations and other events. Every half-term, in collaboration with RCM’s Learning & Participation programme, the space is used to host guided Mini Music Makers sessions, for young children and their families to introduce them to a variety of musical instruments and activities.

The Wolfson Centre in Music & Material Culture occupies the former space of SB07 and SB01a in the South Building and includes a new building extension under the RCM Exchange. It provides dedicated space for accessible storage, research, cataloguing and object-based learning activities based on the Museum’s collection. The space provides easy access to parts of the collections for small class teaching and for undertaking individual research by RCM professors, students, and researchers. The Centre combines intensive storage with an area to deliver lessons to a maximum of 10 individuals.

Get in touch

If you would like further information about supporting the RCM or more information on how we put donations to the best use, our Head of Philanthropy will be delighted to talk to you.