RCM Sparks: Summer Music
RCM Sparks: Summer Music runs alongside the BBC Proms season, and offers a weekly programme of interactive creativity alongside the world’s leading classical music festival. This series of free workshops and discovery events enables participants of all ages and levels of ability to engage with a wide variety of music. As the RCM is situated opposite the Royal Albert Hall, participants will be able to move directly from their workshop to the concert hall to experience live music-making.Summer Music comprises three distinct strands of activity.
• Running on Tuesdays throughout the summer, Summer Music Workshops for 6-9 year olds and 10-12 year olds will provide practical creative sessions tied in to particular BBC Proms concerts. So the “RCM Rubbish Collective!” on 21 July gives participants the chance to make and write for their own musical instruments ahead of a performance of Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra in Prom 13; while Musical Landscapes gives the chance for participants to create their own musical responses to landscapes, ahead of the Proms performances of the Hebrides Overture and Pastoral Symphony.
• Moving to a later age group, Summer Springboard provides three-day courses for 13-18 year olds at the end of July and August. Participants on each course will create their own music based on a range of pieces performed at the Proms.
• The final strand comprises Discovery Sessions, which run on Mondays throughout the summer. Music-lovers of all ages will discover more about composers whose works are being performed at the Proms through the treasure trove of items held in the RCM Library and Museum – here’s the chance to take a look at Handel’s Last Will and Testament, Mendelssohn’s letters, and the original autographed score of Elgar’s Cello Concerto.
All three strands run in addition to the Proms Plus events that are taking place every day during the Proms season in the RCM’s newly transformed Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall.
The entire programme of Summer Music events is being run by RCM Sparks, the RCM’s groundbreaking learning and participation programme, which provides training for RCM students in running school-based and community outreach work, and runs an extensive year-long programme of events in collaboration with local schools, councils and other cultural organisations.
RCM Director Professor Colin Lawson said: “As a dynamic conservatoire that reflects and engages with modern life, the Royal College of Music invites as wide a range of individuals as possible to benefit from its inspirational learning experiences. RCM Sparks: Summer Music is an important element in the College’s vigorous and transformative outreach programme, which has won widespread acclaim and of which the RCM is justly proud.”
RCM Learning and Participation Manager Hayley Clements said “We are very excited to be able to offer such a fantastic range of activities this year that, we hope, offer something for everyone. The RCM is such an enchantingly musical place and we will be thrilled to welcome many new people through our doors to make music here.”
For full information on the programme click here, or to book Summer Music events click here. All events are free of charge, but must be booked in advance.
