Welcome to May's RCS News
Honorary doctorates 2024: Akram Khan, Ivan Heng + Vashti Bunyan
A dancer and choreographer described as one of the most visionary artists of his generation, whose company is regarded as one of the most innovative in the world.
A boundary-breaking actor, director and activist celebrated for a fearless approach to theatre-making and creating a space for diverse voices to be heard.
And a singer-songwriter who achieved a cult following and critical acclaim after her music was rediscovered.
Three pioneering artists will be celebrated alongside the class of 2024 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s summer graduation.
Artistic director, choreographer and dancer Akram Khan MBE; actor, theatre director, activist and RCS drama alumnus Ivan Heng and musician Vashti Bunyan will receive honorary doctorates on Thursday 4 July.
Full story on the newsroom
Cinematic sounds: new film and live music project takes the spotlight in Write Start, the annual award that’s a catalyst for creativity
It’s the annual award backed by a global screen star that helps emerging artists see their creative ideas take flight.
Write Start, established by actor, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and RCS graduate Sam Heughan, encourages students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to join forces to develop original new work.
And this year’s winner will shine a spotlight on the forgotten history of women in early cinema in a live film and music event that will premiere at Glasgow’s famous Britannia Panopticon, one of Britain’s oldest Victorian music halls and former silent cinema, before setting off on a tour of historic cinemas in Scotland and England.
Niall Docherty, third-year Composition student and Molly Sellors, third year BMus – Performance, will receive £5,000 to develop their project, which will bring together experimental scores with screenings of female-directed films from the 1920s.
The music will be written and performed by Hoolan Ensemble, a group of RCS students dedicated to making and performing new music, co-founded by oboist Molly and composer Niall.
The scores will be written by Nancy Johnstone and Niall, with the small ensemble comprising fellow RCS students Christopher Lo (saxophone), Molly Sellors (oboe), Amy Wood (flute), Reese Carly Manglicmot (keyboards) and Niall Docherty (electronics). Also in the ensemble is guitarist Kieran McCrossan while Edinburgh College of Art filmmaking graduate Sára Ní Eithir will create the new film material.
Full story on the newsroom.
Image top row, from left: Niall, Nancy, Christopher
Bottom row, from left: Reese, Molly, Amy
Lark Piano Trio takes top prize in UK-wide music competition
A Royal Conservatoire of Scotland trio has won first prize in a prestigious nationwide chamber music competition.
Lark Trio – violinist Emma Baird, cellist Helen LaGrand and pianist Anna Michels – took the top spot in the Cavatina Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition, held at Wigmore Hall in London.
The competition features the finest chamber musicians from music schools all over the UK and supports young musicians in the early stages of their professional careers.
Watch Lark Trio perform at Wigmore Hall from 3:49:34
News from around RCS …
His Majesty King Charles III is to retain his patronage of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
His Majesty, formerly The Duke of Rothesay, was appointed Patron of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2003. Story on the newsroom.
Congratulations to stage manager Bradley Hamilton, third-year Production Technology and Management, who was appointed deputy stage manager with London Philharmonic Orchestra’s touring and management team to produce a semi-staged concert of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Götterdämmerung).
It involved 108 orchestra members, 120 choir members, 10 soloists and 11 technical team members. It was performed at the Royal Festival Hall, to a full house of 2,750, including the Duke of Kent.
Dr Emily Doolittle is a guest on the Academic Adventures Podcast, which focuses on people who have embraced the opportunity to combine their academic work with entrepreneurial ventures.
Emily, a lecturer and research fellow, is also an independent composer, working on commissions and personal projects alongside her academic work.
In the episode, Emily shares how she combines these roles, including the ways that her academic and freelance work are intertwined, how coming to the UK has allowed her to have a more varied career, and why she identifies as stubborn rather than entrepreneurial.
Eight new arts projects will be brought to life with funding from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Innovation Studio.
Innovation Studio, the two-year pilot programme for creative experimentation, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration for RCS students, staff and alumni, comes to a close with this final round of funding. Story on the newsroom.
From the Junior Conservatoire to undergraduate studies and now RCS brass lecturer, tuba player Mark Reynolds goes under the spotlight in our staff Q+A.
We caught up with BMus graduate Adam Lee, Principal Clarinet No.2 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and RCS’s Woodwind Alumni Ambassador, who shares his post-graduation path to the professional world and how his studies have shaped his career.
Congratulations to MMus 2 Conducting student Oliver Cope who has reached tonight’s (Friday) final of the Dimitris Mitropoulos conducting competition in Greece. Oliver was selected for the semi-finals alongside RCS conducting graduate Konstantinos Terzakis.
Oliver’s conducting colleague, fellow MMus 2 student Peggy Wu has spent the last two months working at the Royal Opera House and has just won a place on the Jette Parker scheme at ROH for the next two years. Next month, she will head to the International Conducting Competition in Rotterdam.
Recent graduate Derrick Morgan jumped in to replace an indisposed conductor with the RSNO last week, taking on three concerts at 24 hours’ notice. It marked the end of Derrick’s first year as Assistant Conductor of the RSNO.
On Wednesday 5 June, at 2pm, RCS will host the Young Conductors’ Showcase in association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at City Halls.
Conducting talent from across the UK, Austria and Finland will direct the orchestra in a varied programme of works by Debussy, Gregson and Elgar.
The concert, jointly presented by the BBC SSO and RCS, is the culmination of a week’s activities with conductor and RCS Visiting Professor Martyn Brabbins.
Conductors:
- Oliver Cope (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)
- Enyi Okpara (Royal Academy of Music)
- Michal Oren (Royal College of Music)
- Josephine Korda (Royal Northern College of Music)
- Costas Vallios (Sibelius Academy)
- Črt Lasbaher (University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna)
Tickets are free and can be booked at the RCS box office.
Alumni updates from BA Performance in British Sign Language and English
Graduate Jamie Rea won Best Actor at Deaffest in Wolverhampton for his performance in the short film The Singer.
Jamie is also back at RCS to co-produce the Off Kilter festival. He also makes a return as producer to Edinburgh Deaf Festival in August.
Commenting on his Deaffest win, Jamie said: “Being awarded Best Actor in Deaffest’s Short Film category is such a phenomenal recognition. To be acknowledged within my own community for a film which I’ve poured so much soul into, not just as an actor but also as co-writer, has been an incredible honour.”
And how does it feel to be working on Off Kilter and what can audiences expect?
“As an alumnus of RCS, I’ve gone on to hone my skillset and really value now working with Off-Kilter. Supporting deaf and hearing actors in their journey of creating work together is a real passion of mine.
“As a Creative Producer and Project Coordinator, I feel I’m now able to consolidate my learning and begin to support the next generation of theatre makers for our wider Scottish landscape and beyond.
“This new work that’s been created by the BA Performance and BA Acting classes is not to be missed. All students have been exploring what this festival could be. They have been sharing story ideas, creative approaches and are learning to navigate communication and traversing how that impacts on their performance or unearths creative opportunities. Come!”
Elsewhere, 2018 graduates – the first BA Performance cohort – EJ Raymond and Brooklyn Melvin are appearing in Alice in Wonderland at Derby Theatre, which opens on 22 June and runs until 6 July.
Bea Webster and Ciaran Stewart starred in Dungeons, Dragons, and the Quest for D*** at A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór.
Amy Helena (class of 2021) is in the Welsh tour of You’ve Got Dragons.
Learning and Teaching in the Arts
Penny Chivas, MEd in Learning and Teaching in the Arts graduate, features in Creative Scotland’s first Environmental Sustainability Review 2023/24.
Penny’s show Burnt Out and its Scottish tour is highlighted as best practice for dance.
Penny, who won RCS’s first Sustainability Prize, is a freelance dance artist who has been based in Glasgow since 2010.
Burnt Out is a solo dance theatre work centred around our changing climate, particularly the devastating Australian Black Summer of 2019/20.
Burnt Out weaves spoken word and movement as the audience is taken on a journey past bushfires, through their ignition and devastation, and left with space to ponder how we got here.
Penny worked with independent producer and sustainability planner Katy Dye, RCS Contemporary Performance Practice graduate, to embed a carbon model into the tour.
Masters of Education graduate Phil Clark and Lio Moscardini, Lecturer in Learning and Teaching (Inclusive Practice) have been published in a leading education journal.
The stories we tell: supporting young mothers’ positive identity through personal narrative performance is featured in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance.
The paper celebrates the voices of a group of young mothers who participated in a community/school programme informed by performance making.
It follows a paper Lio co-authored with Jesse Paul, Head of Fair Access at RCS, on the Sounding Out project, in the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care.
The paper shares the story of a group of four care experienced young people who participated in an arts project in Aberdeenshire.
And the journal, Support for Learning, features an article that Lio co-authored with a group of last year’s Bachelor of Education students on inclusive practice – Molly Cameron, Christopher Clark, Nicola San Gong McNeil, Carys Mitchell and Dorothee Nys, alongside former lecturer Angela Jaap.
The module was run on a problem-based learning model and the article documents the students’ experience.
Elsewhere, MEd graduate Ashley McTavish has been promoted to Faculty Head of Expressive Arts at Montrose Academy.
Notes from Composition
PLUG was a huge success once again this year, with 60 new works for a variety of ensembles/musicians, including Calum Huggan and the Hebrides Ensemble.
ECHO Vocal Ensemble performed new works by staff composer Ailie Robertson and PhD composer Kenneth Tay in their recent tour of Scotland.
MMus composers once again collaborated with researchers from the University of St Andrews, for a performance of new works at Intersections, below.
Sean Shibe, guitar graduate and Associate Artist and Colin Currie, percussionist and Associate Artist mentored guitar and percussion students in performances of new works by composers.
Mark O’Keeffe, instrumental and ensemble coaching staff and Principal Trumpet at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, performed new works by our composers as part of the new Red Note solos project this session.
Composition’s collaboration with the University of Stirling’s Art Collection open day took place last week.
Students from RCS and Stirling joined forces to create work inspired by the exhibitions, and were joined by ensemble Nordic Viola.
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