RNCM President is voice of BBC World Cup trailer

Did you know that our President, Sir John Tomlinson, is the voice of the BBC’s official World Cup trailer?

The famous bass, who studied with us in the 1970s before becoming President last year, was invited to take part in the video, entitled The Tapestry, while performing in a Shostakovich opera at Covent Garden.

‘I think they wanted an Englishman singing in Russian and there aren’t that many of us and also somebody with a low voice, again there aren’t that many of us,’ he told the Lancashire Telegraph.

Directed by Nicos Livesey, The Tapestry features iconic World Cup memories that have been rendered entirely in embroidery – 227,000 meters of thread creating 600 unique frames of tapestry to be exact. The soundtrack is the traditional Russian folk song Ochi Cheryne, which Sir John recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Metropolitan Orchestra.

He added: ‘We did 30 second and 60 second versions for the TV trailers but we also recorded the full song with the orchestra. It was fun to do and who knows, if we win the World Cup I might have a hit on my hands.’

14 June 2018