Michael Harper: 30 May 1963 to 10 March 2025

Born in 1963, Michael studied at Virginia Commonwealth University before completing postgraduate and doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He also studied opera at the Mayer-Lismann Opera Centre in London, served as a trustee for the Buxton International Festival, and was a patron of the National Opera Studio’s Diverse Voices.

Michael (fifth from left) with RNCM staff and students at the final of the 2023 Williams-Howard Prize.

He also worked extensively as a vocal coach and workshop facilitator for organisations including the Gulbenkian Foundation, Youth Music, British Youth Opera, Den Norske Opera, Westminster Choir College, English National Opera, and the National Opera Studio, and was dedicated to ensuring that children and young people of all backgrounds were provided with musical opportunities.

In September 2019 he joined the RNCM’s School of Vocal Studies and Opera as a Principal Study Tutor, and in 2021 established the Williams-Howard Prize in honour of his grandfather (Chester Ambrose Williams) and teacher (Helen Palmer Howard) to promote the study and performance of art songs by African-heritage composers. Today, the Williams-Howard Prize is a highly sought after accolade that vocal students and pianists are proud to compete for, with the winners gaining an enviable opportunity to perform at Buxton International Festival. Alongside this, Michael helped to establish a repository of these art songs in the RNCM Library, and continually fundraised to ensure the prize would run in perpetuity.

Unearthing the music of underrepresented composers was a passion of Michael’s, and between 2019 and 2022 he received funding from the AHRC to collaborate with the BBC on a project that evaluated the work of Julia Perry (1924 – 1979). Two years later, Michael hosted Julia Perry Week at the RNCM, which showcased Julia’s life and music through a series of lectures, presentations, and concerts.

Writing at the time, Michael said: ‘Julia Perry was an exceptional and talented mid-twentieth-century composer who achieved greatness in a world not moulded in her image. Challenging the boundaries, she developed a body of works expressing her uncompromising individual, lyrical and modernist musical voice. With much of her oeuvre still unpublished and unperformed, her true impact is still yet to be realised.’

Michael will be greatly missed by staff and students at the RNCM, and our thoughts remain with his family and friends at this incredibly sad time.