The Course
Historical Performance at the Academy offers intensive training in all aspects of historically-informed interpretation. Specialist training combines with a full involvement in Academy life, expanding performance possibilities for 'traditional' and 'modern' instrumentalists and singers alike.
Principal-study tuition is provided on 'period' instruments, and contemporary players are also encouraged to learn a period instrument. For singers, interpretation classes, coaching and performance opportunities are available in earlier repertoire.
Two baroque orchestras - one a period instrument ensemble, the other a modern instrument group which performs in a style appropriate to its repertoire - regularly rehearse and perform. The Royal Academy of Music / Kohn Foundation Bach Cantatas series, performed on period instruments, is one of the most spectacular and demanding projects ever undertaken by a conservatoire.
Classes in specialised areas of performance practice (including national styles, tuning systems, ornamentation, compositional techniques, continuo disciplines and dance) are offered by teachers who are active as soloists and in leading period instrument ensembles. The department has close links with the Handel House Museum in central London, and often presents concerts there.
The Academy is custodian to a fine collection of instruments that have been restored for period performance, including violins by Stainer, Jacobs and Klotz, and which are available for students. The Becket Collection of classical instruments made in Britain during the mid-to-late 18th and early 19th centuries is used for orchestral projects and chamber music, and has been kindly loaned to the Academy by Elise Becket Smith. The Academy also boasts a comprehensive library of rare manuscripts and editions.
Mainstream students are actively encouraged to take up Historical Performance as a second study.
‘The Academy’s orchestra sounded wonderfully zingy and spry under Laurence Cummings’
The Times, November 2006
Past Students
Elizabeth Kenny (1990), lute
Jane Rogers (1991), viola
Ashley Solomon (1991), recorder
Alison McGillivray (1995), cello
Matthew Wadsworth (1997), lute
Rodolfo Richter (1999), violin
MatthewTruscott (1999), violin
Joseph Crouch (2000), cello
Richard Sweeney (2001), lute
Sarah McMahon (2001), cello
Sarah Moffatt (2002), violin
Sarah Sexton (2002), violin
Huw Daniel (2003), violin
Alfonso Leal Del Ojo (2004), viola
2008–2009 Highlights
> Major new Bach Cantatas series
> St John Passion at Spitalfields Festival directed by Edward Higginbottom
> Period Instrument Baroque Orchestra (PIBO) at Tilford Bach Festival
> Period Instrument Baroque Orchestra (PIBO) directed by Rachel Podger
> Becket Ensemble in Tetbury directed by Laurence Cummings
> French Baroque project at Hatchlands Park, directed by Lisa Beznosiuk
> Masterclasses with Adrian Butterfield, Alison McGillivray, James Johnstone, Jed Wentz, Catherine Mackintosh, Rachel Podger, Menno van Delft, Trevor Pinnock and Kenneth Gilbert
> Performance classes with Jed Wentz, Margaret Faultless, Catherine Mackintosh, Annette Isserlis and Ingrid Seifert
> Kohn Foundation Bach Prize lecture and performance with John Eliot Gardiner
> Family events at the Mayor of London’s ‘Story of London’ festival
> Chamber music project with Laurence Cummings
> Baroque Dance with Mary Collins
> Ongoing collaboration with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment