Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

🌟Tonight! Catch the double bill of Trish Clowes & Ross Stanley, Sara Colman & Rebecca Nash, with support from Grace Conner at 6.30 pm, main show from 7.45 pm!🌟

Tickets available here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/trish-clowes-ross-stanley-02-10-2024

💌 I asked poet Hayley Frances to introduce her debut collection with one adjective. She gave me three: “Sorry, but it is my job to break the rules to find my voice” 💌

Read our full interview with poet Hayley Frances ahead of her debut poetry collection launch, Administer the Laughing Gas, at RBC on Sun 6 Oct, published by Verve Poetry Press and part of Birmingham Literature Festival: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/an-interview-with-poet-hayley-frances

🎟 Tickets are available here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/administer-the-laughing-gas-06-10-2024 🎟

✨🤩Yesterday was a special day for the city, as RBC joined Joe Lycett for the launch of the inaugural International Day of Birmingham (IDOB)!🤩✨

Hosted by the Lord Mayor's office, Joe was joined by RBC's Chair of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Ustad Johar Ali, Mendi Singh, as well as RBC staff—Richard Shrewsbury, Jeremy Clay, and Rose Johnson—together with RBC student India Harding.

You can find out more about Joe Lycett's 'United States of Birmingham', part of the new Sky series, here: https://www.sky.com/watch/joe-lycetts-united-states-of-birmingham

Read more about yesterday's event: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/sep/24/brummies-celebrate-inaugural-international-day-of-birmingham

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Learning and Participation Joe Lycett

🎭✨ON SALE NOW - Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Acting's The Things Good Men Do by Dan Muirden at The Crescent Theatre!✨🎭

The Things Good Men Do is a dark comedy by Dan Muirden, centred around twenty-somethings in London.

The story revolves around reformed womaniser Nick, who is approaching thirty and has fallen head over heels for the girl he wants to marry and have kids with – when a past event comes back to haunt him.

So, how far will he go to achieve a picture-perfect, middle-class life?

The Things Good Men Do is showing:
17 Oct 7:15pm
18 Oct 2:15pm
18 Oct 7:15pm
19 Oct 2:15pm

Book your ticket now: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/the-things-good-men-do

🎭✨ON SALE NOW - Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Acting's The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood at The Crescent Theatre!✨🎭

The year is 1759, and young woman Sally Poppy has been convicted of a particularly gruesome murder, and is sentenced to be hanged.

When Sally claims to be pregnant, a jury of twelve matrons are tasked with deciding whether she’s telling the truth or lying to escape her bloody fate. The village midwife, Elizabeth Luke, finds herself ensnared in a moral dilemma when she’s asked to join the jury. She delivered Sally Poppy into the world, along with many of the other girls in the village.

Should she now vote for her to die?

The Welkin is showing:
Thu 10 Oct 7:30pm
Fri 11 Oct 2:30pm
Fri 11 Oct 7:30pm
Sat 12 Oct 2:30pm

Book your ticket now: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/the-welkin

🎭✨ON SALE NOW - Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Acting's Citizenship by Mark Ravenhill at The Crescent Theatre!✨🎭

Meet Tom, a teenager who dreams of kissing someone–but can't tell whether that “someone” is male or female. With no one to ask for advice, he experiments with Amy, his troubled best friend, before meeting Martin, who leaves him with more questions than answers.

With humour and sensitivity, Citizenship delves into the trials of growing up, and the universal quest for understanding who we are.

Citizenship is showing:
Thu 10 Oct 7:15pm
Fri 11 Oct 7:15pm
Sat 12 Oct 2:15pm
Sat 12 Oct 7:15pm

Book your ticket now: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/citizenship

🎵🎶 On 25 Oct, Michael Seal, Associate Conductor of the CBSO, heads up the RBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert that begins with the world’s most famous symphony—and the concert includes a chance to hear a real musical rarity: Berlioz' Symphonie funèbre et triomphale 🎶🎵

Robert Hugill says: "The work only gets very occasional outings. It has been twice at the BBC Proms, in 2009, Thierry Fisher conducted the military band version with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and back in 1983, Sir John Pritchard conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the revised version with strings and choir to open the BBC Proms that year. Now, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) is launching a season of French music with a performance of Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale on 25 October 2024."

You can continue reading Robert Hugill's preview here: https://www.planethugill.com/2024/08/royal-birmingham-conservatoire-launches.html

Tickets available here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/rbc-symphony-orchestra-25-10-2024

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire launches a French season with Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale Royal Birmingham Conservatoire launches a French season with Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale

✨🎵Introducing RBC’s Performance Department Manager, Christina Hancock!🎵✨

Christina holds a pivotal role at RBC, ensuring the smooth facilitation of large ensemble music performances while maximising opportunities for RBC students in and around the city.

Click the link below to find out more, including Christina's past role, what joining RBC means to her - and even what her favourite biscuit is! 🍪

https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/introducing-rbcs-performance-department-manager

🤩✨Two first-year students have been awarded instrument grants by the Royal Philharmonic Society!✨🤩

Every year, RPS provides funding to young musicians who do not own an instrument suitable for their professional training. The fund was established by the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Foundation, which was established in tribute to the renowned conductor and Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal recipient.

RBC student Emma Taylor received £400 to buy percussion instruments, while Poppy Taylor was awarded £1,000 towards a new cornet.

Poppy (pictured) said: "I am thrilled to have received one of very few grants from the Royal Philharmonic Society to aid my purchase of a new Besson Prestige cornet. This will be invaluable as I enter a busy season of brass band concerts and contests."

Emma said: "I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity to have access to the instruments I need to further my musical career."

You can read more here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/grant-success

🎓🎉 It's the start of a brand new term! RBC Principal Stephen Maddock discusses his autumn highlights, the imminent arrival of some important guests at RBC—including the new Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen and legendary folk group, Fairport Convention—as well as the launch of the RBC French Season, among other news... 🎉🎓

What are you looking forward to most this term? 🤩

You can read Stephen's full message here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/principals-start-of-term-message

🌟🎶 "I look forward to championing music and music-making for all" - Celebrated composer, singer-songwriter and Visiting Tutor in Composition Errollyn Wallen has been appointed Master of the King's Music by King Charles! 🎶🌟

You can read more via the BBC article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gl758g7zgo

🧚✨Back in August, BMus student Beth Taylor performed in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in a semi-staged production of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream!✨🧚

Beth played the Second Fairy, involving a solo in the ‘Song with Chorus’, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and televised on Fri 23 August.

Beth said: “The concert was quite literally a dream! It was set at a festival, so there was lots of dancing and fun interactions throughout the performance...I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity and still can't quite believe it happened!”

You can read the full article here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/the-concert-was-quite-literally-a-dream

✨🤩Join the UK’s hardest swinging band, Down for the Count All-Stars, for “one hellova celebration of vintage music” (TimeOut London) as they celebrate A Century of Swing on 18 Oct!🤩✨

Down for the Count’s new show celebrates A Century of Swing. The band take you on a whistle-stop tour of the best swing music, tracing the origins of the style from 1920s America through to the genre’s heyday in the 30s, 40s and 50s. The band will also perform their own original arrangements of classic jazz standards featured on their new album, Just You, Just Me, bringing swing music right up to date.

You’ll hear instrumental songs from the likes of Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller and vocal classics from singers such as Nat ‘King’ Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, all presented with Down for the Count’s own unmistakable witticisms.

You can book your tickets here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/a-century-of-swing-down-for-the-count

🎶😍Third-year BMus student Jemima Soper has received a bronze medal in the Senior Fiddle Slow Airs competition in the All-Ireland Fleadh, the world championships for Irish music!😍🎶

Jemima said: “I was delighted to be awarded a bronze medal. The competition standard at the All-Ireland Fleadh is always extremely high, and although I’ve competed a few times in under-18 competitions, this was my first time in the over-18 Slow Airs competition.

I’m about to enter my third year at RBC. Playing with the Conservatoire Folk Ensemble and attending Irish music sessions in Birmingham have helped me to keep up with folk music during my busy classical music schedule.”

You can read more here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/music-students-fiddle-success

🎷🎶Are you ready for a new season of jazz? Our brand new season starts on Thu 12 Sep - here's everything you need to know to get your tickets before they're gone!🎶🎷

Kicking things off is celebrated German pianist and composer Pablo Held alongside some of the top players in Europe – Percy Pursglove (trumpet/flugelhorn), Kit Downes (Hammond organ) and Leif Berger (drums) – in his new Buoyancy Band.

There are plenty of guest artists, from French pianist Sophia Domancich, James Owston (bass), and Miles Levin (drums) joining Paul Dunmall to reprise their Bath Jazz Weekend collaboration (3 Oct) to New York-based saxophonist and composer Patrick Cornelius alongside pianist James Francies, Michael Janisch on bass, and drummer Rudy Royston in his Quartet (17 Oct).

And, no jazz season would be complete without our flagship Jazz Orchestra (7 Oct) and Salsa Orchestra (the new name for our much-loved Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, playing on 24 Oct), which now features Latin music from all over the region, from Colombia and Venezuela to Puerto Rico and New York.

Read more in our press release and get booking: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/eastside-jazz-club--autumn-2024-season-announced

RBC Jazz and Eastside Jazz Club Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Department

🎶🎧 Hear French music expert Caroline Potter discuss Lili Boulanger, Ravel, and Debussy on tonight's Proms interval talk!🎧🎶

Listen live tonight on BBC Radio 3 from 7:30 pm or on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021xcd

🤩🌟This weekend at the Royal Albert Hall, RBC jazz graduate Lucy-Anne Daniels will feature at the Sarah Vaughan Prom with the Guy Barker Orchestra!🌟🤩

The BBC Concert Orchestra and Guy Barker are joined by a starry lineup of singers for a celebration of one of the most iconic voices of the 20th century. Sarah Vaughan, born 100 years ago, spanned a range of genres, working with great musicians from Dizzy Gillespie to Michael Tilson Thomas. Her unparalleled vocal technique, which married operatic grandeur with the coolness of jazz, left audiences spellbound. The Proms presents an evening of songs made famous by Vaughan, including ‘Mean to Me’, ‘If You Could See Me Now’ and ‘Broken-Hearted Melody’.

🎟 Sun 28 Jul, 6:30pm doors, 7:30pm start - more information and tickets: https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-13

Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer during the season.

✨🤩Ex Cathedra has announced their 2024/2025 scholars, and they're looking forward to working with them all in the coming season!🤩✨

Jeffrey Skidmore OBE, Artistic Director, Conductor Ex Cathedra and senior lecturer at RBC, says:

"It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of 12 RBC Scholars to sing in selected concerts with Ex Cathedra in the coming season.

It will include Bruckner with CBSO in a BBC broadcast in Town Hall, a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor in December, a concert of Latin American Baroque music in March, and the traditional Good Friday St Matthew Passion in Symphony Hall.

The Scholars Ensemble will also provide a practical resource for RBC researchers throughout the year, perform its own concert - Chansons d’amour – in the Ex Cathedra season, and a Baroque concert for the Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music hosted by RBC in July 2025.

This is a very positive reflection of the strength of choral singing at RBC and good news for all concerned."

You can read more about the 24/25 scholars here: https://excathedra.co.uk/about-us/ex-cathedra-scholars/ex-cathedra-scholars-2024-25

🎵🌟Back in March, Andrew Hamilton and Ed Bennett—both composition department staff at RBC—were elected to Aosdána🌟🎵

Founded in 1981, Aosdána honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland. Membership is limited to 250 living artists who have produced a distinguished body of work and includes artists working in architecture, choreography, music, literature, and visual art.

We spoke to Andrew about what this means:

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RBC: With only 250 living members, what does your election to Aosdána mean to you?

Andrew Hamilton (AH): It means a lot to be elected by a group of living artists whose current work is reaching out to Irish and international audiences, and also by a group whose first members included Beckett and Seamus Heaney. There's a real sense that the arts and the people who make the work are valued and supported in Ireland by being a member of Aosdána.

🎶

RBC: What aspects of your creative journey were most instrumental in receiving your nomination—and subsequent election—to Aosdána?

AH: Nomination to Aosdána is for a body of work that has made an impact, and I'm fortunate to have written pieces that have been taken on by different performers, meaning a work can have a life beyond the first performance, speaking to a wider group of listeners.

🎶

RBC: How do you think interdisciplinary collaboration within the organisation can enhance the creative arts, and are there any specific projects/ideas you're excited to explore with fellow members?

AH: Collaborations often work best when they happen naturally! There are writers and artists whose work I love in Aosdána, and, hopefully, I will get to meet them and see what happens.

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You can listen to Andrew's work below:

A short trailer from recent work, 'Friendly Piece': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mnepLD3ReU&ab_channel=CrashEnsemble

A short song with film made in collaboration with Irish choreographer/theatremaker, Emma Martin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndWzzDaKCkY&ab_channel=Ergodos

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/andyfrankhamilton

Andrew Hamilton Friendly Piece FIND US www.crashensemble.comwww.instagram.com/CrashEnsemblewww.facebook.com/crashensemblewww.twitter.com/crashensembleCrash Ensemble is Ireland’s leading ne...

Next Thursday 1 August, the CBSO centre presents and exciting concert by National Orchestra for All (NOFA), a completely inclusive, mixed ability youth orchestra welcoming 100 young musicians from across the country who face barriers to music making. During each term, members come together to learn, compose and perform exciting programmes of repertoire.

Of particular interest to Midlands music fans, the programme includes Ghost Town by Coventry’s Jerry Dammers. This song spent three weeks at the top of the charts in 1981.

The Orchestra will also be performing Strength in Numbers, a collaboration with RBC’s own Joe Broughton, Lecturer in Folk Music and Director of the Conservatoire Folk Ensemble.

The concert is from 3-5pm and admission is free.

National Orchestra for All Presents: Sounds of Change Tickets, Thu 1 Aug 2024 at 15:00 | Eventbrite