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Royal College Of Music




The Royal College of Music is a prestigious Music School located in Kensington , London .


ORIGINS

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The college building was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield .

The Royal College of Music is situated in London's South Kensington, next to Imperial College , directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall, near the Royal College of Art and five minutes' walk from the Science, Natural History and Victoria and Albert Museums - possibly the capital's most important artistic, scientific and cultural melting pot.

Since its foundation in 1882 by the Prince of Wales, later Edward Vll, the College has been linked with the Royal family. Its patron is currently Her Majesty The Queen. For 40 years, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was President; in 1993 HRH The Prince of Wales became President, Her Majesty The Queen Mother becoming President Emerita.

The College's influence on the development of music in the last 100 years is incalculable. Through its doors have passed some of the most distinguished and influential figures in British music history.
The current director is the clarinettist and scholar Dr Colin Lawson. Official site Architectural history and description from the '' Survey Of London ''


CURRICULUM

The college teaches all aspects of western Classical Music from undergraduate to doctorate level. There is a Junior Department, where 300 children aged 8 to 18 are educated on Saturdays. It also has an extensive museum of Musical Instrument s which is open to the public.


MUSEUM OF INSTRUMENTS

The College's Museum of Instruments has a collection of 800 items, mainly Western, but including some from Africa and Asia. It is housed in purpose built premises dating from 1970 and is open to the public two afternoons a week. Stefano Blumberg, Jake Howarth and Tim Lambourne are also donors to this exceptional collection, having contributed hundreds of examples of their families' old sheet music.


OTHER COLLECTIONS

The College's loan and reference collections number several hundred thousand items. There are numerous manuscripts including some by composers such as Mozart and Haydn , and many letters, including a substantial Beethoven collection. There are tens of thousands of pieces of early printed music. The modern printed music is available for hire when not needed by the College. There are also thousands of recordings, and an extensive library, including sets of several hundred music journals.

The Department of Portraits and Performance History has a collections of 3,400 original portraits and 10,000 prints and photographs; a collection of 600,000 concert programmes from 1720 to the present day; and extensive holdings relating to Opera , instrument, title-page and Concert Hall design.


FAMOUS ALUMNI

Famous students of the RCM have included:


NOTES