Initiated in 2014, our Celebrity Master Class series was generously supported by the Royal Holloway University of London Alumni Fund and included the following events:
November 2014 Christian Immler, baritone
January 2015 Juliette Bausor, flute
February 2015 Steven Isserlis, cello
February 2016 Sarah Fox, voice
Please feel free to check our Music Events page regularly for upcoming masterclasses and other music events.
Steven Isserlis (cello)
London Mozart Players
W
e are very excited about our partnership with the London Mozart Players (LMP), which began in 2015 with a side-by-side performance and coaching event. Selected Royal Holloway musicians are coached by LMP players and join with the LMP for a high-profile gala concert performance in the Windsor Auditorium.
Orchestral management seminars
Many Royal Holloway graduates are already working in the orchestral management field. In an effort to develop an orchestral management programme for the future, we offer various sessions by leading professionals in the orchestral world, with guests to include:
1. Michael Fuller: double bass, committee member, Philharmonia Orchestra in Q&A about being a musician member of the committee that runs the orchestra.
2. Martin Smith: Management, London Mozart Players in a a session discussing the near-death and rebirth of the LMP and the challenges involved in musicians rebuilding an organisation
3. David Burke: General Manager, London Philharmonic Orchestra (Royal Holloway alumnus) in a seminar on Orchestral Management, including marketing, ticket sales, programming, and relations between orchestra and management.
In addition, changes have been implemented to the management structure of the Royal Holloway Symphony Orchestra. In a departure from the past, the RHULSO is now run jointly by a committee of students (with a Stage Manger, Librarian, Social Secretary, chosen by application/interview), an Orchestra Manager (Second Year student), and an Assistant Conductor (Second Year student), who all work closely with Rebecca Miller as Music Director. Opportunities are available for students to suggest repertoire for the reading sessions and to get involved with the behind-the-scenes running of the orchestra.
From a successful inaugural season, our Resident Quartet will be the renowned The Tippett Quartet for 2015/16 and 2016/17 season.
The programme will be open to all instruments including strings, winds, piano, and will be open to all students across the College. Beginning with two 'Chamber Music Speed Dating' evenings to launch the programme, the Quartet-in-Residence will offer coachings, open master classes, and their own recitals throughout the year, culminating in a new Chamber Music Competition in the Spring, the prize for which will be a concert platform at the PLAY! Festival in the summer. The quartet will also be rehearsing at the College and will be available for consultation and advice throughout their residency.
To find out more about the College Chamber Music Competition Concert, please click here
Royal Holloway offers several 'mini-festivals' throughout each annual Concert Series, allowing performers and audiences alike to fully immerse themselves into a particular aspect of music. These festivals are aimed to tie together performance repertoire with selected academic course topics, and will feature performances, master classes, and special events, as well as talks and lectures by our esteemed academic personnel. The themes will vary each year to fit with the options courses offered.
You can take a look at our previous 'Mini-festivals' here:
Spotlight Series Finnissy at 70: 25th-27th October 2016
Curated by College composer and conductor, Nathan James Dearden, Royal Holloway University of London and the Institute for Musical Research partner up to host a three-day festival in celebration of esteemed Bristish composer, Michael Finnissy, on his 70th Birthday year.
Tuesday 25th: Finnissy’s choral music “penetrates the ear with an ambience and clarity that easily transforms the listener from the present to a Renaissance Burgundian court” (Classical Source). Finnissy's avowedly spiritual choral music, inspired by his religious faith, embodies the marriage between the intellectual, the cultural, the creative, the political, and often most importantly, the humane. Nathan James Dearden and the New Voices Consort presents an evening of celebration for Finnissy’s 70th birthday year and present choral music written for the community by Michael Finnissy, Judith Weir, Howard Skempton and Robert Ashley.
Wednesday 26th: Finnissy's work is never easy, but that does no justice to the depth of inspiration, from literary, folksong, cultural, and the skill and virtuosity required of the performers. The applauded duo, Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea present an afternoon of Finnissy’s music for violin and piano, featuring the ‘Violin Sonata’. Following on from this we welcomed four Postgraduate Research composers from across the country to workshop new pieces by Darragh and Mary, as Michael Finnissy as the Session Convenor.
Thursday 27th: After a seminar with Michael Finnissy and Mark Bowden, exploring the life of works of one Britain's most esteemed composers, acclaimed pianist and academic Ian Pace explores Finnissy's music influenced by that of the past.
'Lest We Forget', Festival In Memoriam: 19th-21st October 2016
Wednesday 19th: The Choir of Royal Holloway and Director of Choral Music, Rupert Gough, open our festival with their latest Midweek Music Concert featuting musical works inspired or bred from the travesty of war.
Thursday 20th: Our Quartet-in-Residence, the Tippett Quartet, give their inaugural concert of the season with works by Holst, Britten, Ravel and Mendelssohn.
Friday 21st: Inspiring the next generation of musicians is core to our ethos at the Department of Music. Led by Rebecca Miller and co-organised with Music+, the Royal Holloway Chamber Orchestra and Chiltern Music Academy join forces in a special orchestral masterclass featuring movements from Holst's The Planets.
MozartFest: 10th-12th November 2015
Tuesday 10th: Orchestral Masterclass: As part of their exciting residency at Royal Holloway, members of the London Mozart Players offer a rare opportunity to gain insight into orchestral playing techniques and methods, especially in relation to Mozart.
Wednesday 11th: As part of their first year as Quartet-in-Residence at Royal Holloway, members of the renowned Tippett Quartet presented a side-by-side programme with Royal Holloway students, focusing on the chamber music of Mozart.
Thursday 12th: Featuring Royal Holloway’s very own and extremely talented violin and piano teachers, Anna Cashell (violin) and Simon Watterton (piano), this evening featured music by Mozart for violin and piano, the two instruments played by the composer and child prodigy himself.
‘BachFest’: 17th-20th February, 2015
To tie in with College Reader Stephen Rose’s ‘Music of J.S. Bach’ course, we offered a mini-festival focused around J. S. Bach and his family and contemporaries, including:
Tuesday 17th: Master class with Steven Isserlis, cello
Wednesday 18th: Lunchtime organ recital
PLUS Royal Holloway Chamber Orchestra concert (Bach family, concertos by Handel with Jessica Kinney and Ralph Williams, Royal Holloway Concerto Prize Winners 2014/2015)
Thursday 20th: ’The Playoffs’: Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord & Danny Driver, piano
A debate on the Piano vs Harpsichord, with particular reference to CPE Bach, whose music both of these artists have recently recorded on their respective instruments.
Friday 21st: Bach cantatas and works by Bach’s predecessors in Leipzig Kuhnau and Knüpfer (featuring new editions by Stephen Rose). St Paul’s Egham Hythe
Also including: Baroque Dance session, lunchtime organ recital in the Chapel, late-night Art of the Fugue event with fugues played on rather unexpected instruments!
'NovemberFest': 18th-21st November, 2014
To tie in with College Lecturer Mark Berry’s ‘Ideas in German Music’ course, this festival featured events surrounding German music and culture, and will include:
Tuesday 18th: German Lieder Master Class with baritone Christian Immler
Thursday 20th: lecture/recital by Shiry Rashkovsky on Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata
Friday 21st: Open Master class with the Badke Quartet (German chamber repertoire)
Also including: German cabaret event, and an evening of German food, music, and beer at the local German-owned pub, ‘The Beehive’