Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatory in London where young people can study music. Many musicians who became famous studied at the College. The College was founded by Royal charter in 1882 The first president was the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and later presidents have also been members of the royal family. The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry. The first building was opposite the west side to the Royal Albert Hall, but in 1894 the RCM moved to a larger building south of the Royal Albert Hall on Prince Consort Road. The College is still there, but there have been many extensions and improvements to the building. Today there are about 600 students at the RCM from some 50 countries. About 170 of these are post-graduate students. The college can award degrees and diplomas in music and current composers and performing musicians can study there. The current director of the Royal College is Dr Colin Lawson. The college has a large museum of musical instruments. Next to the main building is a 400-seater opera house, the Britten Theatre, opened in 1986. Some famous people who studied at the Royal College of Music Thomas Allen (born 1944), singer Julian Anderson (born 1967), composer Malcolm Arnold (1921 - 2006), composer Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975), composer Rutland Boughton (1878 - 1960), composer Julian Bream (born 1933), guitarist and lutenist Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), composer George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), composer Thurston Dart (1921 - 1971), performer and musicologist Andrew Davis (born 1944), conductor Colin Davis (born 1927), conductor James Galway (born 1939), flautist Eugène Goossens (1893 - 1962), conductor Charles Groves (1915 - 1992), conductor David Helfgott (born 1947), pianist Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), composer Herbert Howells (1892-1983), composer John Ireland (1879 - 1962), composer and pianist Dame Gwyneth Jones (born 1936), Wagnerian soprano Thea King (1925-2007), clarinetist Constant Lambert (1905 - 1951), composer and critic John Lill (born 1944), pianist Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916), composer and conductor Neville Marriner (born 1924), conductor Francis Monkman (born 1949), rock, classical and film score composer Peter Pears (1910 - 1986), singer Trevor Pinnock (born 1946), harpsichordist and conductor Edmundo Ros (1910—2011), band leader Cyril Smith (1909 - 1974), pianist Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 1960), composer Fanny Waterman (born 1920), founder, chairman and artistic director of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition musician Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer Julian Lloyd Webber (born 1951), cellist William Lloyd Webber (1914 - 1982), composer Gillian Weir (born 1941), internationally-renowned organist John Williams (born 1941), guitarist Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), composer Other websites Royal College of Music website Archived 2007-09-01 at the Wayback Machine