Alumni updates
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From glittering awards to exceptional performances, the international community of RCM alumni continues to make an impact the world over.
Awards, accolades and appointments
Soprano Ava Dodd, conductor Nicolò Foron, violinists Freya Goldmark and Rebeca Nuez and violist Jaren Ziegler were among the RCM alumni and students featured in Classic FM’s 30 under 30 list.
Recordings featuring pianist Julius Drake and composers Emily Hall and Alex Paxton have been nominated for the BBC Music Magazine Awards.
Saxophonist John Harle was made OBE for services to music in RCM Patron, His Majesty King Charles III’s New Year Honours list.
Pianist Joseph Howson was awarded the Kerr Memorial Prize at the Royal Over-Seas League Keyboard final in February.
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Composer Lara Poe has been nominated for the Teosto Prize, Finland’s top music award, for her work Laulut maaseudulta, which was premiered by the RCM Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in 2024. The award recognises ‘bold, original and innovative Finnish compositions’.
Conductor Pablo Urbina has been made Music Director of the Orquestra do Algarve in Portugal.
Junior Department alumna, cellist Laura van der Heijden won the Instrumentalist Award at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2025, where she performed Florence Price’s Night. Fellow nominee Ben Goldscheider performed Jörg Widmann’s Air for solo horn.
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Performances and recordings
Soprano Louise Alder is making her Metropolitan Opera debut in the autumn, as Zdenka in Richard Strauss’ Arabella.
Conductor Thomas Blunt has enjoyed recent engagements with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and made his debut with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducting Handel’s Messiah. He also assists Maurizio Benini at the Royal Opera House on Gounod’s Faust.
Pianist Ivana Gavrić recently released her latest single with Signum Classics, Ravel’s À la manière de Borodine, and gave a critically acclaimed performance of Stravinsky’s two-piano arrangement of The Rite of Spring with Tim Horton at The Crucible, Sheffield.
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Pumeza Matshikiza was the special guest soprano at Bryn Terfel’s Christmas concert at the Southbank Centre and on tour.
Ensemble Fioritura, featuring alumni composer-pianist Lance Mok and countertenor Keith Pun, will be performing Silhouettes of Passion’s Master-mistress on 16 May at Conway Hall, followed by a concert tour in Chelmsford, Bristol, Faversham and Kew. They are also offering a free workshop at Mimosa House on 5 April.
The world premiere of Mute by Laurence Osborn will be given by the London Sinfonietta at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 3 April, alongside the UK premiere of shouting forever into the receiver by Hannah Kendall, which received an Ivor Novello Award in 2023 for Best Large Ensemble Work.
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Soprano Tamara Radjenovic (main image) made her solo debut at Cadogan Hall on 18 February, performing with the Orion Symphony Orchestra and RCM Professor of Conducting Toby Purser. The concert was a great success, with two encores and standing ovations.
Soprano Joanna Songi will release an album of art songs by Elizabeth Maconchy with CRD Records on 26 September. A single from the release was issued in February.
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Pianist Wang Yang released her second album, Day and Night, worldwide in January, and has been performing on tour during the past year.
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Outreach and research
Pianist Marc Corbett-Weaver’s annual event The Story of Christmas raised over £1 million for homeless and children’s charities for the first time in December 2024.
Nabillah Jalal has co-founded a programme helping underprivileged boys to learn music: ArtSee & NJ Studio in Singapore.
Junior Department alumna Odele Prince has published a new music workbook series with Amazon called Children’s Music World. This is a unique series that incorporates three essential areas of learning for the complete beginner: theory, ear-training and sight-reading. There are four volumes in the series: Rhythm, Pitch, Intervals and Chords.
Composer and Lead Producer for BBC Radio 3 Luke Whitlock has received a distinction from the University of Edinburgh for his Masters of Research into neglected historic women instrument makers. He has also been awarded a full scholarship for doctoral research at Magdalen College, Oxford, where his focus will be the life and music of Liza Lehmann. He has recently released an album through Prima Facie entitled Prelude and Dance, featuring his music alongside works by Anna McClure, Susan Spain-Dunk and alumna Imogen Holst.
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College connections
Four pianists whose time at the RCM stretches between the 1950s and 1980s, Terence Atkins, Tim Gibson, Jonathan Marten and John Rippin, are still playing regularly and performing together, recently giving concerts in Enfield and Chingford. John taught O- and A-level Music to Terence, who in turn taught O- and A-level to Tim. John organised and played in the two-piano charity concert in Chingford for many years, giving his last concert there after 27 years, retiring aged 90. He is still in demand as an organist and plays most Sundays, as do RCM contemporaries Jonathan and Terence. Jonathan founded the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, of which RCM Head of Keyboard, Professor Vanessa Latarche, is now Artistic Director, and he recently attended RCM Opera Scenes in the College, where his grandson, tenor Timothy Burton, is studying for his Master of Performance.
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Send your updates for the Summer 2025 printed edition of Upbeat to news@rcm.ac.uk by Friday 9 May 2025.
