Staff updates

Alongside their College commitments, RCM professors and staff members bring their skills to a range of projects and performances.

Performances and premieres

The world premieres of All Earth Once Drowned and the Piano Concerto by composition professor Dr Ed Bennett will be given at the New Music Dublin festival in April.

Marketing Officer for Events Megan Cunnington has sung with the London Philharmonic Choir in recent Royal Festival Hall concerts including On the Transmigration of Souls and the London Soundtrack Festival Gala, with Mahler’s Eighth Symphony coming up on 26 April.

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Repertoire professor Norbert Meyn developed a dramatised performance of the comic Second World War internment revue What a Life! by Hans Gál, performed at the Gosforth Civic Theatre in Newcastle on 23 January 2025. The performance was based on the RCM edition of the piece, which was produced during the Music, Migration and Mobility (MMM) project and was developed in collaboration with Robert Hersey. There was a schools matinee performance, and the mobile MMM exhibition was shown in the theatre during the day. Norbert also oversaw an exhibition of European Refugees in Britain at the British Library, and has arranged a celebration of composer Mátyás Seiber on 4 May at the Hungarian Cultural Centre, including a masterclass, exhibition (the mobile MMM exhibition and an additional display about Seiber), with a panel discussion and concert featuring musicians from the Liszt Academy Budapest and the RCM.

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Violin professor Mathilde Milwidsky recently performed as soloist with the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra.

Violin professor Madeleine Mitchell directed another successful Red Violin festival last autumn. The festival included Madeleine performing the Bruch Violin Concerto in the final concert, with the Sinfonia of Leeds directed by RCM alumnus David Greed, who led the Orchestra of Opera North for 44 years. The festival’s title was inspired by Le Violon Rouge paintings, and children from In Harmony Opera North created their own red violin paintings for this year’s festival.

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Conducting professor Natalie Murray-Beale’s engagements this season have included The Pirates of Penzance for English National Opera and Carmen for Opera Australia. 

Musicianship teacher Shirley Smart performs with the Quanta piano trio at the Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club in Kennington on 4 April, and with her own trio at the Klaipeda Cello Festival in Lithuania in May. She’ll also be adjudicating on the David Geringas Cello Competition Youth Division. Shirley runs a free improvisation event at the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston, with the next event on 9 April – students are welcome to participate. The Quanta Trio will also be joined by Musicianship teacher Tim Watts on piano on 30 April at Counter-Chamber at Folklore in Hoxton.

RCM Research Fellow in Composition Dr Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera, Festen (main image), dedicated to Head of Composition, Professor Jonathan Cole, was premiered at the Royal Opera House in February to widespread critical acclaim, and was later broadcast on BBC Radio 3, now available on BBC Sounds. Among the star cast was alumnus Peter Brathwaite. Mark-Anthony Turnage was also interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s flagship programme, Desert Island Discs.

Did you hear RCM composition professor Mark-Anthony Turnage on @BBCRadio4 Desert Island Discs?

Listen back for fascinating insights into his upbringing, his time studying at College, and how music has shaped his life, from personal milestones to football.https://t.co/muC3FF4asO
— Royal College of Music (@RCMLondon) January 6, 2025

Awards and appointments

Principal bass trombone of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Josh Cirtina joins the Royal College of Music as bass trombone professor in September 2025. A regular recording artist and Artistic Director of the Slide Action quartet, Josh has performed with orchestras worldwide including at RCM Patron, His Majesty King Charles III’s Coronation.

Principal bass trombone of the @royalphilorch, @JoshCirtina joins the RCM as bass trombone professor in September 2025!

A regular recording artist and Artistic Director of @action_slide, Josh has performed with orchestras worldwide including at King Charles III's Coronation. pic.twitter.com/t8Zm0tmbbX
— Royal College of Music (@RCMLondon) January 22, 2025

Other distinguished visiting professors joining the Brass Faculty are Jens Bjørn-Larsen, visiting professor of tuba; Clare Farr, visiting professor of bass trombone; and Sarah Willis, visiting professor of brass.

Florian Leonhard has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list 2025 for services to fine historical and modern stringed instruments. He was appointed official expert and luthier for stringed instruments by the Royal College of Music in 2018. 

Conducting professor Natalia Luis-Bassa has been appointed Musical Director of the Jersey Symphony Orchestra and will lead some of the island’s best musicians for the next three years.

Deputy Head of Vocal & Opera Audrey Hyland was nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for her Aldeburgh Festival production of Curlew River.

Visiting professor of voice Nicky Spence is featured on one of the recordings nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award.

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Publications, podcasts and presentations 

Professor Colin Lawson, Dr Diana Salazar and Professor Rosie Perkins have collaborated on a new publication, launched in January: Inside the Contemporary Conservatoire: Critical Perspectives from the Royal College of Music, London. Drawing on the expertise of a wide range of figures including Professor Jonathan Cole, Miranda Francis, Professor Vanessa Latarche, Professor Aaron Williamon and Director, James Williams, this volume presents fresh perspectives on the work of music conservatoires today through an in-depth case study of the RCM.

RCM Librarian Peter Linnitt has overseen the installation of a display at the State Room of 11 Downing Street focusing on the way music has supported social change. One display focuses on the role of former RCM composition professor Hubert Parry’s Jerusalem in the fight for women’s suffrage; the other focuses on alumnus Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s awakening and understanding of his African heritage through his music, and includes his Symphonic Variations on an African Air.

Reader in Performance Science Dr Neta Spiro recently recorded a webinar on improving fair access to musical care during early years, hosted by the Anna Freud Centre for children’s mental wellbeing. Earlier in March, the Musical Care International Network co-led by Neta ran its fourth online musical care in dialogue session, and in April Neta will attend the third ArtsCare conference in Calgary, Canada, which she has been involved in leading for the last two years.

Composition professor Errollyn Wallen was on the panel of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s recent celebration of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, spoke at the Royal Albert Hall’s Women of the World at 15 event to mark International Women’s Day, was recently interviewed in The Guardian, and has been nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award.

Introducing 'Performance Science' - a new podcast series by our @CPerfSci!

In episode 1 Professor Aaron Williamon is joined by theatre director Rachel Warr (@_dottedline) & RCM's @NetaSpiro to explore learnings from the pandemic's impact on the arts.

🎧https://t.co/vLANf8LmYh pic.twitter.com/5f6QkMclkV
— Royal College of Music (@RCMLondon) January 15, 2025

Head of the Centre for Performance Science (CPS) Professor Aaron Williamon is host of the CPS’s new podcast, Performance Science, joined by a range of high-profile guests including Professor Rosie Perkins and Dr Neta Spiro. The CPS will host the Leaders Performance Institute conference at the RCM on 24 April.

Publications & Content Officer Joanna Wyld was invited to name the first symphony by Indian film composer Ilaiyaraaja, and wrote programme notes for Mitsuko Uchida’s recent Royal Festival Hall recital and for Daniel Barenboim conducting Lang Lang/West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival.

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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.