Resonate: March 2024
Welcome to your March 2024 edition of Resonate.
We’re heartened by the support of our community, who have helped raise an incredible £40,000 towards our RNCM Endangered Instruments Appeal this winter, which will fund vital initiatives to encourage young musicians to take up endangered instruments and support them on their musical journeys.
We’ve got a jam-packed performance programme this month, including our spring opera La scala di seta, our Original Voices festival, and the very first solo show for the RNCM Gospel Choir!
Tune into BBC Radio 4 this Sunday (3 Mar) at 6.15 pm to hear RNCM PhD student Emma Clarke choose audio highlights from the past week on Pick of the Week (available after on BBC Sounds) – you might even hear a few sounds from behind the scenes at the RNCM!
Read on for news of how our alumni are making waves, to find out more about the inaugural recipient of a new award supporting disabled and neurodiverse students at the RNCM, and a new sculpture in honour of our Founding Principal.
RNCM Gospel Choir
Fri 8 Mar // 7pm
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Following on from their roaring success supporting the RNCM Session Orchestra, the RNCM Gospel Choir returns this spring for their very first solo show.
Led by renowned vocalist and RNCM Creative Multi-Specialist Wayne Ellington, they bring to life music by artists including JP Cooper, Aretha Franklin, and Mary Mary.
Original Voices Festival
14-15 Mar
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RNCM Original Voices festival celebrates new perspectives on music that has filled the concert hall, in some cases, for centuries. Part of our The Future is Green initiative, this year’s festival is focussed on how we can re-examine familiar music through the lens of the climate emergency and natural world.
Thu 14 Mar // Manchester Camerata and RNCM Students
Fri 15 Mar // RNCM Chamber Orchestra with Henning Kraggerud
See the full programme here, including our student-led Spotlights.
La scala di seta: Rossini
Sun 17 & Sat 23 Mar // 3pm
Tue 19 & Thu 21 Mar // 7.30pm
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Rossini’s one-act opera is a lively blend of humour and romance. A comedic story of seduction and would-be lovers, the playful score brings all the brilliance and wit you’d expect from his signature style.
RNCM MIUAWGA Ensemble with Byron Wallen
Fri 22 Mar // 7.30pm
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Our innovative Make-it-up-as-we-go-along (MIUAWGA) Ensemble is dedicated entirely to making music through improvisation. We’re thrilled that acclaimed composer, improviser, and trumpet player Byron Wallen will be collaborating with our students for this unique performance, drawing influence from Central and Eastern African traditional music.
There’s plenty more going on at the RNCM this month, including performances by Ensembles from the European Chamber Music Academy (6 Mar) and Manchester Collective (9 Mar).
Why not enjoy a midday musical interlude at one of our ever-popular Monday Lunchtimes and Thursday Lunchtimes, or join students from our School of Keyboard Studies as they compete in the annual RNCM Chopin Prize (7 Mar).
Visit our What’s On page for full listings for this month and beyond.
Endangered Instruments Appeal
RNCM Community Raises an Incredible £40,000!
Thanks to our wonderful community of supporters, we are proud to have raised £40,000 during the winter of 23/24 to support the RNCM Endangered Instruments Appeal and help ensure that talented young musicians continue to play at-risk instruments.
Donations will help us to deliver a range of targeted initiatives to support young musicians in playing the viola, double bass, oboe, bassoon, French horn, bass trombone and tuba at all levels, ensuring a steady and continued pipeline of talent from the point of first access right through to conservatoire study and beyond.
Our public campaign kickstarted the conversation around this crisis, and we will continue to keep it open and encourage philanthropic support to ensure the issue remains one of our strategic priorities over the next decade.
The Leeds 2024
New Award Named After Alumna
The Leeds International Piano Competition has announced new measures to make it fairer than ever before, including the introduction of the Alexandra Dariescu Award for an outstanding performance of a work by a female composer.
Since graduating from the RNCM in 2008, Alexandra has carved out a phenomenal career championing inclusion, diversity and gender equality in her concerto programming, and this new award sees The Leeds increasing the number of works by women in the Competition repertoire.
Alongside the new award, Alexandra, who is now a Professor of Piano and Associate Member of the RNCM, has worked with The Leeds to create the education initiative, Count Me In!
Alexandra says: ‘By elevating the representation of women’s voices in the Competition repertoire and recognising outstanding performances, we are not only enriching the musical experience for both competitors and audiences, but also contributing to a more inclusive and equitable musical landscape.’
Gema Lu Cai
RNCM Announces Inaugural Recipient of New Award
Spanish pianist Gema Lu Cai has been announced as the inaugural recipient of the Lucy Hale Award, a new award set up to champion and support disabled and neurodiverse students at the RNCM.
The award was established by Nicky Hale and John Mellor to honour their daughter Lucy’s incredible achievements as a composer, and as a mentor to disabled and neurodiverse artists.
Gema, a fourth-year student specialising in music education, was diagnosed with a learning difficulty and ADHD during her time at the RNCM. She plans to use the £5,000 award to purchase her first piano.
Her ambition is to become a piano professor and, having already established herself as a gifted piano teacher, she will now be able to offer lessons to her students at home. This will reduce her travel hours, creating more time for her to practice and write academic essays – both of which are more challenging for Gema as she needs extra time to absorb information and to take breaks.
Read the full article on our website.
Emily Howard
RNCM Professor Honoured with Prestigious Fellowship
We’re delighted that Professor Emily Howard has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts.
One of two Academicians elected this year, the honour recognises Emily’s distinctive and wide-reaching music, as well as her work as Professor of Composition and founding Director of PRiSM (the Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music) at the RNCM.
An alumna of the RNCM, Emily’s works span large-scale word settings, orchestral music and chamber works, opera and multimedia installations, and are performed worldwide.
The academy praised Emily’s music for ‘its granular use of instrumental colour, powerful use of text and inventive connections with shapes and processes’.
Sir John Manduell CBE
Founding Principal Honoured with New Sculpture
Our Founding Principal, Sir John Manduell CBE, who brought together two eminent Manchester music schools to establish the Royal Northern College of Music, will be honoured this summer with a new bust created by ‘Our Emmeline’ sculptor Hazel Reeves.
Following the merger of the Royal Manchester College of Music with the Northern School of Music, Sir John brought the newly created Northern College of Music to its purpose-built premises on Oxford Road in 1973. It was granted the Royal Charter in July of that year, becoming the RNCM.
The bronze head and shoulders, which celebrates Sir John’s 25 years as head of the RNCM (from 1971), will be revealed in a grand unveiling ceremony on Friday 21 June ahead of a concert featuring the RNCM Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Choir.
The commission was initiated by two members of Sir John’s original team, Bryan Fox and Richard Griffiths, and includes the creation of a unique plinth designed and made by RNCM alumnus Jonathan Stockton – now an internationally collected furniture designer and maker.
Read the full article here.
The RNCM Legacy Club brings together those who have pledged to leave a gift to the RNCM in their Will.
Every year, we host a special event to bring members closer to our work, hear our students perform, and to thank them for their incredible generosity during their lifetime. Each gift, of any size, ensures that a lasting, often transformative, legacy is left by every donor who generously supports us in this way.
Our next annual RNCM Legacy Club event takes place on Friday 22 March. If you intend to leave us a gift in your will, do let us know as we would love to thank you and extend an invitation to this upcoming event. You can reach us at [email protected].
3 March 2024
