Upbeat Spring 2013 - Royal College of Music

6
In the news...
Welcoming
Professor
Alexander Sokolov
Kevin Porter, Professor Vanessa Latarche, Professor
Colin Lawson, Professor Alexander Sokolov
Concert Hall
becomes Scoring
Stage for a day
On 1 November the Amaryllis Fleming
Concert Hall was transformed into a
fully functional scoring stage for the
largest film-scoring session undertaken
at the RCM to date.
Composition for Screen student Pierre
O’Reilly organised the session, pulling
together 70 RCM musicians to record
We were delighted to welcome
Professor Alexander Sokolov, Rector
of Moscow Conservatory, to the RCM in
October last year.
Professor Sokolov gave a talk, visited
the RCM Museum and discussed future
artistic collaborations with RCM Artistic
Director Stephen Johns. He then met
with Professor Colin Lawson, Director
of the RCM, to sign and re-affirm the
memorandum of agreement between
the two institutions, which allows for
a number of educational and artistic
collaborations.
Central to this historic partnership is
the longstanding close relationship
between the keyboard faculties: each
year, RCM Head of Keyboard Professor
Vanessa Latarche visits Moscow for
a series of auditions, discussions and
masterclasses. The new memorandum of
understanding promises even closer links
in the future.
music for two short films. The session
was a great success and enjoyed by the
students, providing excellent training
for something they are very likely
to encounter in their future careers.
The recording was overseen by RCM
Studios’ engineer Steve Harrington, and
utilised the RCM Studios’ live room
beneath the concert hall to house the
percussion section.
Building on the success of this
recording, the RCM Studios team hope
to be able to run more sessions of this
scale in the future.
In defence of
the recorder!
Head of Historical Performance
Ashley Solomon has featured on
Simon Mayo’s popular Radio 2
Drivetime show.
Following a phone-in confession from
a listener, who disliked the recorder
so much that he hid his sister’s and
children’s, Ashley gallantly went on air
to defend his instrument. He gave a
brief account of the recorder’s history,
before performing a delightful set of
variations on the well-known tune
Greensleeves.
Student
collaborations
The RCM
Students’
Association
presented
the launch
concert of
the newly
formed RCM
Students’
Film
Orchestra
on 22
January. The concert featured two
UK premieres: John Williams’ original
score for Steven Spielberg’s War
Horse, and Downey Overture by Oscar
Navarro, as well as an original score by
a Composition for Screen student.