• The Royal Academy of Music announces its summer season of performances, including over 60 concerts and three festivals, covering jazz, chamber, symphonic music and new works, as well as fully-staged opera and musical theatre productions. As ever, the season includes many free events and appearances from leading guest performers.
• The Academy continues to work with prestigious organisations and artists such as Wigmore Hall, the Knussen Chamber Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. Conductor Ryan Bancroft also makes his debut with the Academy Symphony Orchestra
• General online booking opens at 10am on Friday 14 April. Download our latest Diary of Events: https://www.ram.ac.uk/diary-of-events
• Find out more at https://ram.ac.uk/events

The Royal Academy of Music today announces a summer season of performances, drawing on the array of musical talent and genres at the Academy, with guest performances from leading artists. Audiences can enjoy a host of musical experiences, from Rossini to Rodgers and Hammerstein, as well as brand new works.

Summer marks festival season at the Academy, starting with Fragile Festival (2-5 May), including new works by Academy composers inspired by the natural world. This festival has been created in collaboration with wildlife expert and sound recordist Martyn Stewart and The Listening Planet, which is dedicated to promoting a wider appreciation of Planet Earth’s beauty, diversity and fragility.

Following this is the annual Summer Piano Festival (14-16 June) curated by Head of Piano Joanna MacGregor CBE, celebrating the creativity and boldness of Academy pianists. Concerts feature film improvisation, and works by Schubert and Brahms, Birtwistle and Meredith Monk.

Coinciding with Pride month is the return of the Seen and Heard Festival (26-29 June), a series of concerts celebrating diversity in classical music. Performances will include old and new music by underrepresented composers, including Adolphus Hailstork, Sally Beamish, Sanae Kanda and Imogen Holst. All festivals are free to attend.

Opera audiences can enjoy a fully staged production of Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio (16- 19 May), performed by the next generation of leading opera singers from Royal Academy Opera. This production of Rossini’s comic one-act satire is conducted by Johann Stuckenbruck and directed by Sam Brown.

Two musical theatre performances take place in the Academy’s Susie Sainsbury Theatre; John Caird’s version of the classic 19th century love story Jane Eyre (15-18 June) directed by Hannah Chissick and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless Carousel (6-9 July) directed by Bruce Guthrie.

The Academy continues to work with the world’s leading artists, ensembles and venues. This summer, the Academy is proud to launch a new piano series at Wigmore Hall, the first partnership of its kind for a UK conservatoire. Audiences can see some of the Academy’s most exciting young pianists in this series. Bicentenary Scholar Aidan Mikdad presents a virtuosic programme in the first concert on 26 April, pairing Schumann with Scriabin. On 17 May, fellow Bicentenary Scholar Junyan Chen offers her interpretations of bold repertoire, featuring Gubaidulina’s jazzy Piano Sonata and Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor. Closing the first concerts of the series in style, Sir Elton John Scholar Bocheng Wang performs pieces by Rachmaninov, Bach and three movements from Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite on 14 June.

Drawing on artistry from the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Academy students perform Side-by-Side with the Knussen Chamber Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival and with the Czech Philharmonic at the Academy’s Angela Burgess Recital Hall. Working with the Academy for the first time is Ryan Bancroft, Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, who will conduct the Academy Symphony Orchestra in a sparkling programme of Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka and Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

Jonathan Freeman-Attwood says: “The Academy’s Bicentenary celebrations have felt like a wonderful on-going festival, from heralding 200 PIECES – our commissioning tour de force – alongside concerts, new initiatives and collaborations launched on the cusp of our third century. This summer we can enjoy a vast range of activity and creative ambition, which will see our 200th year go out with a bang! I look forward to welcoming audiences to these exciting events.”

For a full list of events and activities visit ram.ac.uk/events

The Royal Academy of Music moves music forward by inspiring successive generations of musicians to connect, collaborate and create. We are the meeting point between the traditions of the past and the talent of the future, seeking out and supporting the musicians today whose music will move the world tomorrow.

From pre-school to post-doc, our students come here from more than 50 countries. We challenge them to find their own voice, take risks and push boundaries. Jacob Collier, Freddie De Tommaso, Edward Gardner, Evelyn Glennie, Elton John, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Felicity Lott and Simon Rattle all learnt their craft here.

Every student benefits from a stimulating curriculum and an ambitious range of concerts and events. Legendary artists come here not just to perform, but to become mentors, friends and musical partners.

A world of music comes to us – and we send music back out into the world. As we embark on our third century, our aim is to shape the future of music by discovering and supporting talent wherever it exists.

Music never stands still – and nor will we.

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