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RCM 125th Anniversary Gala
28 October 2007
Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, London
Sopranos:
Janis Kelly
Anna Leese
Elizabeth Watts
Mezzo sopranos
Sarah Connolly
Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Anna Grevelius
Tenors:
Alfie Boe
Andrew Kennedy
Andrew Staples
Bass & Bass-baritones:
Graeme Broadbent
Gerald Finley
James Rutherford
Piano:
Gary Matthewman
Luis Pares
Sacconi Quartet
Conducted by: John Wilson
Programme
Ralph Vaughan Williams:
Serenade to Music
On Wenlock Edge
Benjamin Britten:
Folk Song Arrangements
Elizabeth Maconchy:
Sun, Moon and Stars
William Walton:
Scapino
Frederick Delius:
A Song of Summer
Eric Coates:
The Man from the Sea
In partnership with The Daily Telegraph, the Royal College of Music's 125th Anniversary Gala features an extraordinary constellation of RCM talent. Andrew Kennedy and Elizabeth Watts - winners of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize in 2005 and 2007 respectively - perform with current and former Junior Fellows Luis Parés and Gary Matthewman and the exciting young Sacconi Quartet. Followed by a unique performance of Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music conducted by John Wilson and bringing back twelve outstanding graduates to perform together for the first time, including Alfie Boe, Gerald Finley, Sarah Connolly, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Janis Kelly.
Ivan Hewitt for The Telegraph, 18 October 2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/10/18/bmroyal118.xml
The Royal College of Music's world-renowned alumni are gathering to celebrate its 125th birthday, says Ivan Hewett
In 10 days' time, some of Britain's starriest singers will be gathered together to sing in the same piece on the same stage. That's an amazingly unlikely event, as they have careers that keep them constantly on the move to every corner of globe.
Among them will be Gerald Finley, who has sung Don Giovanni at the New York Met. Sarah Connolly, famous for her portrayal of tragic heroines such as Dido and Lucretia, will be there, as will Elizabeth Watts, recent winner of the song prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
And there'll be Janis Kelly, whose recently appeared as Mrs Nixon at English National Opera, Andrew Kennedy, who sang alongside Anna Netrebko at the Last Night of the Proms, Alfie Boe, the popular tenor who is just about to release an album of Neapolitan song, and half a dozen others.
What's brought all this talent together to perform Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music for 16 voices isn't the imperious summons of some rich impresario. It's the 125th anniversary gala concert of the institution that nurtured them and prepared them for the rough and tumble of professional life: the Royal College of Music.
Elizabeth Watts arrived there in 2002, having first studied archaeology at Cambridge. "I was very green, I didn't really know anything about the business, and I arrived in this amazing place which turned me into a proper singer. The college is very go-getting. It's a place where people aren't spoon-fed, they're encouraged to take the initiative."
Alfie Boe is especially keen to counter the impression that he leapt unprepared from a mechanic's apprenticeship in Fleetwood to the operatic stage. "I'd been singing in amateur operatic societies, but I let it go after I started my apprenticeship. When I decided to get back into singing, I did an audition for D'Oyly Carte. Someone there put me in touch with a repetiteur at the Royal Opera House, and from there I got a contact with the RCM."
It was a scary moment when he stepped through the door of the RCM in 1995. "I was just a lad from Fleetwood, and suddenly I was thrown in at the deep end. It was really demanding, but everyone was very friendly. That was when I realised what a serious business singing is."
Preparing people for a tough profession is, of course, the raison d'être of a conservatoire like the RCM, and, as the profession changes, the RCM has had to change with it. But the institution can't be entirely market-driven. There are cultural values at stake, too.
"We're here because we believe in the tradition. We believe Mozart has the same significance as Shakespeare," says the RCM's director, Colin Lawson. "The word conservatoire tells you we're about taking something valuable from the past, nurturing it and passing it on to the next generation. That's not just to do with training; it's also a cultural education that brings practice and research together. We believe we're uniquely placed to do that, because we bring great practitioners together with our great research collections and archives."
That's fighting talk in a cultural and educational climate that is suspicious of elitism. The RCM is under constant pressure to widen access. But it has to operate in a fiercely competitive a environment, where the other three London conservatoires, and the UK's national and regional conservatoires – as well as starry foreign institutions such as the Juilliard School in New York – are all in competition for the best students. And there are the difficulties of coping with a grand but creaking building dating back to 1894.
Squaring all these circles at once is an enormous challenge. Meeting them involves finding ways of linking the RCM's core business to the wider world. One way is to forge partnerships: two new ones have just been announced, with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore and Princeton in the US.
RCM students are encouraged to think creatively about their careers, and take part in outreach programmes. The college has its own Centre for Performance Science (a connection with science highlighted by the recent appointment of Lord Winston as the RCM's president).
But, as Lawson insists, music must always be at the centre. "We musn't lose sight of that mysterious thing that turns technique into real music-making. If there's one word that sums up what we're about, it's inspiration."