Highlights and Successes

• Performances by Academy students in the International Guitar Foundation’s Autumn Festival at Kings Place and on their Young Artist Platform
• Masterclasses by Roberto Aussel, Tilman Hoppstock and Fabio Zanon
• Online interview: Michael Lewin in conversation with Roberto Aussel
• Masters of the Baroque: a recital of solo works by de Visée, Scarlatti, Telemann, Weiss and Bach, performed by undergraduate and postgraduate students (livestreamed)
• Performance classes with Fabio Zanon
• Caprichos: a recital of contemporary music, featuring works for guitar by Brett Dean and Louise Drewett, performed by Bruno Pancek in the presence of the composers
• World Premieres of Sally Beamish’s Unquiet and Sean Clancy’s Two lines and a chord, solo guitar works commissioned for the Academy’s bicentenary and performed by Sergiu Hudrea and Jianhao Zhou in the presence of the composers
• A concert of chamber music by women composers: Judith Weir, Elena Langer, Thea Musgrave, Clarice Assad, Barbara Kolb, Dale Kavenagh and Sofia Gubaidulina
• Guitaria: Seguidillas y Tonadillas, a programme of Spanish songs by Sor, Granados, Gerhard, Palomo and Falla
• Connecting Composers, a recital of solo works by Arcas (Verdi), Falla (Debussy), Tansman (Scriabin), Brouwer (de Visée), Dyens (Gismonti) and Britten (Dowland)
• Other chamber concerts, including Piazzolla’s Double Concerto performed by Mario Pietrodarchi (bandoneon) and Diogo Carlos (guitar) with RAM String Ensemble
• Guitar students participate in Royal Academy Opera and Musical Theatre productions
• Collaborative project and concert with the Composition Department
• Lecture by John Taylor, sound engineer, on the art and craft of recording the classical guitar
• Blyth Watson Guitar Concerto Prize, adjudicated by Fabio Zanon
• Lecture/Recital by Fabio Zanon on Brazilian Art Song

Blyth Watson Guitar Concerto Prize (deferred from 2019/20), adjudicated by Miloš Karadaglić.

Open Academy Fellowship awarded to Saki Kato for outreach projects.

Performances by Academy students in the International Guitar Foundation’s Autumn Festival at Kings Place (livestreamed).

Online interviews: Michael Lewin in conversation with Tilman Hoppstock, David Russell and Edoardo Catemario.

Music from Spain and Latin America: a postgraduate recital of solo works by Federico Moreno Torroba, Manuel Ponce and Leo Brouwer (livestreamed).

Performance classes with Fabio Zanon.

World premiere of Gary Carpenter’s The Benefit of Hindsight, commissioned for the Academy’s Bicentenary and performed by Bradley Johnson (livestreamed).

Fantasies and Farewells: a postgraduate recital of solo guitar works by Malcolm Arnold, Napoléon Coste, John Dowland and Roberto Gerhard (livestreamed).

Guitaria: A programme of British song cycles by Timothy Bowers (Sea Changes), David Braid (Songs of Contrasting Subjects), John Rutter (Shadows) and Raymond Warren (The Pity of Love).

Three chamber concerts involving keyboard, strings, woodwind, harp, percussion and vocal students.

Guitar students participate in Royal Academy Opera and Musical Theatre productions.

Collaborative project and concert with the Composition Department.

Blyth Watson Guitar Concerto Prize (2021), adjudicated by Benjamin Dwyer.

World premieres of two new concertos for guitar and orchestra: Giacomo Susani’s Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra, with the composer as soloist and Konstantin Riccardi conducting; and Rafael Marino Arcaro’s Concerto Apinayé, with Vitor Noah Sandes as soloist and Ryan Bair conducting the Audentia Ensemble Orchestra.

A lecture recital by Andrea Dieci on the first sonata from Henze’s Royal Winter Music.

For the Guitar Open Day, the department held an ensemble masterclass given by Stephen Goss and a student concert featuring the concerti by Manuel Ponce, performed by Dimitrios Soukaras, and Malcolm Arnold, performed by Bradley Johnson.

Performances by undergraduate, postgraduate and Advanced Diploma students at the International Guitar Foundation’s Autumn Festival at Kings Place.

Masterclasses with Fabio Zanon.

Lecture by David Leisner entitled Playing With Ease: a Healthy Approach to Guitar Technique, followed by a masterclass.

The world premiere of David Gorton’s Lord Herbert’s Pavan by Bradley Johnson, as part of the Academy's Sound and Vision Festival.

A showcase of music for accordion and guitar.

Guitaria concert featuring song cycles by Schubert, Britten, Burgon, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Romancero Gitano.

Chamber concerts involving keyboard, strings, woodwind, harp, accordion and vocal students.

A masterclass by Nigel North.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students performed in the Academy Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Stravinsky’s Agon and the Royal Academy Opera production of Massenet’s Chérubin.

Emanuele Addis (postgraduate)
Selected by the Craxton Memorial Trust and the Philip and Dorothy Green Trust for their Young Artist concert series.

Diogo Carlos (undergraduate)
Selected by the Julian Bream Trust to perform at Wigmore Hall in November 2021.

Alexandra Whittingham (postgraduate)
Debut album My European Journey is released on Delphian Records and reaches no 1 in UK specialist Classical livestream charts.

Jianhao Zhou (postgraduate)
First Prize in the 21st Ivor Mairants Guitar Award, administered by the Worshipful Company of Musicians; also his recording is selected for the Telemann Fantasias Recording Competition CD.

Michael Butten (alumnus)
As holder of the New Elizabethan Award, administered by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, gives debut recital livestreamed from Wigmore Hall.

Plinio Fernandes, Alexander Hart, Pavel Ralev and Vitor Moraes Sandes (alumni)
All selected by the International Guitar Foundation for its Young Artist Platform.

Pavel Ralev (alumnus)
1st Prize in both the Zagreb and Adelaide International Guitar Competitions.

Dimitrios Soukaras (recent alumnus)
Recording contract with Naxos; new album Roots to be released in October 2021 as part of Naxos’s ‘Greek Classics’ series and entirely comprising world premiere recordings.