From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Royal College of Music is one of the most prestigious music schools in the United Kingdom. It is located in Kensington in London.
Founded in 1882 as a successor to the National Training School for Music by the then-Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), the school opened in 1883 with George Grove as its director. It moved to its present location, next to Imperial College, London and near the Royal Albert Hall in 1894, and in the same year Hubert Parry became director, remaining until 1918.
The college teaches all aspects of western classical music from undergraduate to doctorate level. It also has an extensive museum of musical instruments which is open to the public.
Famous students of the RCM have included:
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), composer
- Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), composer
- Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977), conductor
- George Butterworth (1885 - 1916), composer
- Arthur Bliss (1891 - 1975), composer
- Eugène Goossens (1893 - 1962), conductor
- Constant Lambert (1905 - 1951), composer
- Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), composer
- Peter Pears (1910 - 1986), singer
- Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), composer
- Charles Groves (1915 - 1992), conductor
- Neville Marriner (born 1924), conductor
- Joan Sutherland (born 1926), singer
- Colin Davis (born 1927), conductor
- Julian Bream (born 1933), guitarist and lutenist
- James Galway (born 1939), flautist
- John Williams (born 1941), guitarist
- Thomas Allen (born 1944), singer
- Andrew Davis (born 1944), conductor
- John Lill (born 1944), pianist
- Andrew Lloyd Webber (born 1948), composer
