Royal Academy of Music partners with The Frick Collection in New York

As part of the Academy's initiative to foster and promote international collaboration, this new partnership will give Academy musicians the opportunity to work with and perform at an internationally recognised cultural institution. The Frick Collection in New York is known for its distinguished Old Master paintings and outstanding examples of European sculpture and decorative arts, and presents an annual series of classical music performances. The Academy is one of only two conservatoires, along with The Juilliard School, who have been invited by The Frick Collection to partner on this series of lunchtime concerts.

Three Academy composers have been commissioned to compose new pieces inspired by central works in the Frick's permanent collection. Undergraduate student Laila Arafah's work engages with the narrative mystery of Vermeer's Girl Interrupted at Her Music, while Master's students Shin Kim and Ruben Doda respond to Whistler's atmospheric Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean and Goya's late masterpiece The Forge respectively.

In April and May next year, these works will be premiered in lunchtime concerts at the Frick by Academy musicians. For the first recital on 16 April, undergraduate flautist Efrem Workman, recent graduate Basil Alter (violin) and alum and YCAT artist Ariel Lanyi (piano) perform Laila Arafah's composition alongside works by Dutilleux, Adès and Stravinsky. On 23 April, current students Adriana Bec (violin) and Alex Lavine (cello) present a richly conceived concert focused on themes of landscape and memory with recent graduate George Fu (Piano), winner of BBC Music Magazine’s 2024 Newcomer Award. The programme centres around Shin Kim's new commission and also features alum James B Wilson's Turner's Ships, a work composed for the Academy's 200 PIECES series in 2022. Then on 7 May, cellist Jason Ma, who graduated from the Academy this summer, performs Ruben Doda's commission alongside selections from Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues and Schnittke's Sonata for Cello and Piano No 1.

‘Establishing meaningful collaborations with great cultural institutions always brings special rewards, and I am hugely grateful to the Director of the Frick, Axel Rüger, and the Head of Music and Performance, Jeremy Ney, for their support and ambition in forming this exciting partnership. I would also like to thank the Gregory family for their continued generosity to the Academy as we establish ’The Alexis Gregory Series’.
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Academy Principal

Tickets to the Academy's lunchtime concerts at The Frick Collection are available to book here.

Through partnerships such as this and the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme, the Academy helps talented young artists expand their musical horizons and share their work and culture with others around the world. This is one of the many aspects of Artistic Excellence at the Academy, which ensure that our students benefit from a music-making environment of the highest quality.