The Royal College of Music’s Historical Performance Faculty provides intensive training in all aspects of historically informed interpretation from more than 500 years of music history. Students on both historical and modern instruments have the chance to combine unparalleled access to knowledge with a wide range of performance opportunities.

There are outstanding research and study opportunities to support your training, including an extensive collection of manuscripts and early printed editions housed in the RCM Library. The Royal College of Music Museum holds approximately 1,000 historical instruments dating as far back as the 15th century. We have one of the largest collections of early keyboards in any higher education institution.

Performance opportunities

Performance opportunities usually include chamber projects and concerts, baroque and classical orchestral projects for both modern and historical instruments and regular masterclasses given by world-renowned musicians.

Each year, the RCM Baroque Orchestra plays as part of the RCM’s extensive programme of events, as well as collaborating with other conservatoires including the Salzburg Mozarteum and Bremen Hochschule. There is also the opportunity for singers to collaborate in performances of Bach cantatas each year with the orchestra.

Our students have had the opportunity to perform at UK festivals and heritage venues including Hatchlands Park, Thomaskirche Leipzig, Orangery Palace in the Sanssouci Park of Potsdam, Windsor Castle, the Bath International Music Festival, the London Handel Festival and the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace.

There is plenty of scope for chamber music performance, both student-led and through high-profile opportunities internally and externally. Students are encouraged to form their own chamber groups and expand their repertoire. All RCM chamber groups can benefit from unlimited coaching and Historical Performance students can also access 18th-century chamber music coaching from Florilegium, our Ensemble in Association. Additionally, in 2020 we acquired the Kennedy-Mietke Harpsichord, a double-manual harpsichord inspired by Mietke, made by Bruce Kennedy.

In 2021 the RCM launched the New Generation Baroque Ensemble scheme in collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and the National Centre for Early Music. Each year an early career ensemble will be mentored by the RCM’s Chair & Head of Historical Performance, work in collaborative side-by-side sessions and give two recitals.

The RCM also hosts an International Festival of Viols every year, launched in 2007, featuring concerts, lectures and masterclasses from leading performers. Recent visiting artists have included Christophe Coin, Fretwork, Vittorio Ghielmi, Paolo Pandolfo and Jordi Savall.

Beyond the RCM

While the Historical Performance Faculty takes a very active role in the life of the RCM, additional opportunities exist further afield.

As well as invitations to perform at prestigious UK venues, the Historical Performance Faculty regularly tours overseas, providing opportunities to perform in world-renowned venues and to experience global music. Previous tour destinations have included Italy, Paris, Salzburg, Bolivia, Washington DC, New York, Rome, Venice, Frascati and Bologna.

Our students have performed with the Salzburg Mozarteum in the Leipzig Thomaskirche on Good Friday and taken part in video conference masterclass sessions with the Eastman School New York, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

In 2017, musicians from the Historical Performance Faculty took part in a collaboration with the Académie de l’Opéra de Paris and Centre de musique baroque de Versailles to stage Rameau's Les fêtes d’Hébé with performances in both Paris and London.