Reflecting on the Academy's year

The 2025/26 academic year has offered many musical opportunities at the Academy. From critically acclaimed performances to collaborations and connections with leading figures of the international music industry, we reflect on the past year.

The Academy has welcomed prominent international artists for performances, residencies and masterclasses:

• Students have performed with Jonathon Heyward, Leon Foster Thomas,Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, John Wilson and Timothy Ridout (recently announced as Viola Professor from Autumn 2026) among others and learned from Imelda Staunton, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Sir Thomas Allen, Louise Alder, Steven Isserlis and players from the Berlin Philharmonic
• Academy students have performed alongside orchestras such as London Sinfonietta, Czech Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Further afield, we have seen concerts at world-class venues such as Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Regent Hall, Crazy Coqs, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Aldeburgh Festival and with the Georgian Concert Society in Edinburgh
• Open Academy continued to make music with community partners including St Marylebone Parish Church, Wigmore Hall, Bromley by Bow Centre, Royal London Hospital School and London primary and secondary schools, as well as welcoming people living with dementia and their careers to our Music for Thought sessions

Student and alumni industry successes have included:

• A grammy nomination for the Academy Jazz Orchestra's recording of Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores
• Alum Max Richter received an Academy Award nomination for the Hamnet soundtrack
• Four members of the student and alumni community were named Classic FM Rising Stars
• Prize wins from the Royal Philharmonic Society, Gramophone, Ivor Novello, Jazz FM, Royal Over-Seas League and Spotlight Prize

As part of our commitment to foster and promote international collaboration, Academy musicians have taken part in multiple global projects:

• We partnered with The Frick Collection in New York on a series of classical music concerts
• Our Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme has seen exchanges with The Glenn Gould School in Toronto and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and more
• In August, an orchestra of 46 students from the Academy and The Juilliard School will take part in performances at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and BBC Proms
• Thanks to the generous support of Gage Foundation, our exchange programme with Czech Philharmonic Orchestral Academy has continued to open doors for emerging musicians to connect and collaborate in January and March of this year

For over 30 years, recording has been an intrinsic part of Academy life. Autumn 2025 saw the release of four new recordings:

• Three new digital albums were released as part of our Bicentenary Series in partnership with Linn Records: Tales of Being by guitarist Georgi Dimitrov-Jojo, The People United Will Never Be Defeated! by pianist Emanuil Ivanov and Java Suite by pianist Julian Chan
• We marked the centenary of Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 6 with a new recording on Linn Records, conducted by Richard Rodney Bennett Professor of Music Ryan Wigglesworth

From postgraduate careers days to workshops with MishMash Productions, we have seen many Artist Development projects that have allowed musicians to develop their creative practice. Projects have included the following:

• In January, Academy students took over performance venues over the course of three days for the 2026 Students Create Festival; this year’s line-up featured 17 world premieres
• Six students were selected to work with Southbank Centre’s resident artist Sean Shibe
• A free improvisation project was held at Vortex Jazz Club
• Students worked alongside peers in the opera sector; Waterperry Opera Festival have offered two Academy students positions on their summer internship scheme and the Academy’s Opera Makers programme saw performances at Tête à Tête

Junior Academy have continued to enrich the musical education of students aged 13-18:

• They have held external concerts at venues such as St Marylebone Church, St James’s Piccadilly, Steinway Hall, alongside showcases and full-scale orchestral performances at the Academy
• Junior Academy students have seen successes at competitions including BBC Young Musicians, Open Recorder Days Amsterdam, Bromsgrove Young Musicians’ Platform, Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Award, Haslemere International String Competition, Gregynog Young Musician Competition, BBC Young Composer awards and Indie Film Music Awards
• Experts Lawrence Power, Rebecca Gillever, Imogen Hancock, Kira Doherty, Steven Devine and Lucie Horsch have given masterclasses across a range of instruments
• Three trumpet students recorded for an upcoming animation at Abbey Road

We announced a transformational £30 million pledge from philanthropist Mrs Aud Jebsen at the end of 2025. This gift, the largest in our 204-year history, will be used to transform the Academy’s facilities. The donation will be staggered and our Grade II-listed Regency building will undergo major works over the next three years. In recognition of Mrs Jebsen’s outstanding support, 1-5 York Gate, part of the Academy’s main site on London’s Marylebone Road, was renamed Jebsen House in February 2026. This autumn we look forward to opening the newly refurbished Aud and Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Recital Hall.

In September 2025 we were awarded £1.18 million from the Office for Students to enhance our facilities for digital creativity in teaching and learning. We have now completed works to improve the technical infrastructure and acoustics in the Concert Room and Room 516.

Work also started on creating new teaching and rehearsal spaces on London City Island in Docklands, in a major project to expand facilities, improve the student experience and widen access to world-class musical opportunities.

Thanks to the generous support from the Clore Duffield Foundation, which has funded the course’s set-up and first three years of delivery, we announced the first fully funded Foundation Year course for a UK music conservatoire, which underlines our clear commitment to widening access to world-class music education. Visit our Foundation Year course page for further information.