With 700 students, over 100 staff and hundreds more visiting artists and practitioners, the Royal Welsh College is the largest artistic community in Wales and the biggest producer of artistic work.
“All of us who are members of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama set great store by our deep sense of community,” says Principal Hilary Boulding in her speech at the graduation ceremony today.
“We’re a community drawn together from 30 different countries, but what unites us is our shared and fundamental belief in the value of the arts and artists.”
She goes on to demonstrate the sheer scale of the contribution by College students to the cultural life of Wales and, beyond Wales, to the UK :
Balance Exhibition at London’s Bargehouse
In the last ten days alone, RWCMD students have delivered an exquisite performance of Sheherezade in St. David’s Hall, two dramas, eight performances of Cabaret in the Richard Burton Theatre, three performances of Verdi’s opera, Falstaff in the Sherman Theatre, ten puppetry performances for school children in the woods surrounding Castell Coch, the Schools’ Opera, Jazz in the foyer, a concert for the Friends of the College, concert parties in care homes, a Piano Miniatures concert and, in London, the Balance Exhibition which featured design, composition and – for the first time – performance.
‘Shelley & The Ratman,’ puppetry performance at Castell Coch
“It’s an astonishing cultural contribution.”
Tonight, post graduate singer, Emyr Wyn Jones (the College’s Falstaff), will sing in front of an audience of 20,000 people in Manchester as part of the national commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, accompanied by College Brass Musicians. Tomorrow in a festival of performance, our Junior Conservatoire students will present a day of performance.
Emyr Wyn Jones in rehearsal as Falstaff
“Already, before our students graduate, they have made their artistic mark.”
And the list doesn’t end there. For 4 weeks in August, RWCMD graduating actors will present the College’s production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at the Edinburgh Festival and Stage Management students will again manage Edinburgh’s Venue 13, mounting up to 100 shows by companies from all over the world.
“Our students regularly demonstrate artistry of the highest level; they’re known in the profession for being grounded and good colleagues with a strong work ethic and a respect for their peers. “
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