Royal Celebration for Royal Welsh College

8 February 2016

As Patron of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, HRH The Prince of Wales tonight (8^th February) hosted a gala event at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the achievements of Wales’s national conservatoire.

“The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is recognised internationally as a centre of excellence for music and drama and we at the Welsh Government are immensely proud of its achievements and the skills and talent base which it has contributed to Wales’ creative industries.”
Ken Skates
Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism

The evening featured a programme of performances showcasing the talents of the College’s young artists. The featured image shows Prince Charles meeting MA Opera Performance student Chanae Curtis, who sang Strauss’ Morgen! Opus 27 No 4. Some of the students talk about their experiences here.

Guests included some of Wales’s most successful artists including Dame Shirley Bassey, Bryn Terfel and Michael Sheen. They were joined by members of the families of both Richard Burton and Dame Elizabeth Taylor, and some 250 committed supporters of the College’s work.

For more than sixty years, the Royal Welsh College has provided a springboard for the careers of exceptionally talented young artists – from musicians and actors to theatre designers and costume makers – providing a critical flow of talent and skills into the creative industries in Wales and beyond.

“An absolute lynchpin of Wales’s extremely high international profile in the arts”
David Pountney
Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Welsh National Opera

“A truly public-facing and engaging attribute in civic and cultural life in Cardiff through adventurous and high quality programming across the arts”
The Arts Council of Wales

“A powerhouse of innovation and collaboration across the performing arts”
The Telegraph

Following a major development in 2011, the most talented young artists from Wales now train alongside their peers from more than thirty countries in facilities to rival the best in the world.

The £22.5 million development of the College’s estate brought about a transformation and delivered an iconic public building which houses state-of-the-art rehearsal and performance spaces.

“A jewel in the nation’s crown”
Leighton Andrews
previously Minister for Education, Children & Life-Long Learning

Paul Watkins, International Chair in Cello at the conservatoire and a member of the world-renowned Emerson Quartet, described the exquisite Dora Stoutzker Hall as ‘one of the best concert halls in the world.’

The new Richard Burton Theatre and Dora Stoutzker Hall, together with the College’s other venues, host over 500 performances a year, providing a public platform for student performances, international guest artists, touring companies and productions for children and families.

It has become one of South East Wales’s most popular cultural venues; annual audiences have increased tenfold in the last five years to more than 70,000 in 2015.

In addition to its role as the National Conservatoire of Wales, the Royal Welsh College is a catalyst for attracting high profile cultural events to Wales. In 2013 it hosted World Stage Design which brought the international leaders in theatre design to Cardiff; last year with Catrin Finch, the College submitted a successful bid to bring the World Harp Congress – the world’s largest harp festival – to Cardiff in 2020.

Along with its world class facilities, the profile of the College’s training is widely recognised nationally and internationally. Wales’s conservatoire was ranked as the top Drama training programme in the UK in national league tables twice in the last three years and its music training was ranked as top in the UK for the employment success of music graduates.

Royal Welsh College graduates can be found in leading roles across the global arts industry, from London to Los Angeles.

 

“The College is one of the most thorough and searching actor training courses in Europe. There is an astonishing level of new talent coming through Wales”
Award-winning playwright & RWCMD International Chair in Drama Simon Stephens

 

“The conservatoire is a major flagship for Wales. We will continue to provide an international platform for the next generation of performers and creative talent, but we also want to make sure that our work can support even more young artists across the whole of Wales,” says Principal, Hilary Boulding.

 

Over the next five years the College plans to develop its national presence by expanding its Junior Conservatoire and Young Actors Studio to more locations across Wales – more than 300 children currently attend courses in Cardiff and Haverfordwest every weekend.

The College also has ambitions to expand its programme of schools performances and workshops, which has reached more than 30,000 school children across Wales.

The College is also committed to significantly increasing its scholarship and endowment funds to ensure that every talented young person offered a place is able to achieve their full potential, regardless of their financial circumstances.

 

Editors Notes:

RWCMD highlights from the last five years:

• The College ranked as the top institution for drama in the Guardian University Guide in 2013 and 2015. In the music category, the College scored higher than any other conservatoire or university in terms of music graduate employment.
• The College offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in acting, performance design, stage management, music performance, opera, jazz, composition, musical theatre and arts management.
• The College runs an extensive programme of around 500 public performances every year, presenting its own emerging artists from Wales and the rest of the world alongside guest artists of international standing.
• The College’s outreach programme takes a range of performances and workshops into schools as well as day care centres, community centres and care homes. Activities including schools opera performances, percussion, composition and storytelling workshops have reached almost 15,000 school-age children across Wales in the last two years.
• More than 300 exceptionally talented children of school age attend the College’s Junior Conservatoire and Young Actors Studio courses every week. The College aims to extend this provision into other parts of Wales. Its Young Actors Studio launched at Pembrokeshire College in Haverfordwest in 2014. Former students of the Junior Conservatoire include Anne Denholm, Official Harpist to HRH the Prince of Wales
• TV audiences will recognise acting alumni including Ruth Jones, Rob Brydon, Eve Myles, Aneurin Barnard (Cilla, The White Queen, Thirteen, War and Peace), Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey), Alexander Vlahos (Merlin, Privates, Versailles), Amy Morgan (Mr Selfridge) Kimberley Nixon(Fresh Meat, Hebburn, Critical), Tom Rhys Harries (Jekyll and Hyde).
• Theatre audiences will also recognize Joanna Vanderham (Desdemona in RSC’s Othello), Sophie Melville (Iphigenia in Splott). The National Theatre season in London in autumn 2015 featured seven RWCMD acting graduates.
• The NEW writing festival returns for its third year with four new plays commissioned by the College, four emerging directors and featuring the final year acting cohort. It will premiere in Cardiff before showcasing in London as part of A Nation’s Theatre Festival, supported by The Guardian
• Recent successes include a Young Welsh Singer of the Year Award for Emyr Wyn Jones; performances by 2014 graduate and Young Welsh Music Theatre Performer of the Year, Luke McCall, at BBC Proms in the Park in Swansea; a Best Actor Award for Sophie Melville at the Edinburgh Festival in Sherman Cymru’s Iphigenia in Splott, which has just been presented at London’s National Theatre. Grant Jameson won the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award 2015.
• The College has played a leading role in bringing major international festivals to Wales including World Stage Design 2013 and the World Harp Congress 2020. It has also hosted the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize and BBC Young Musician of the Year finals.
• Large-scale collaborations with national organisations in Wales include Welsh National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, National Dance Company Wales, Music Theatre Wales, National Theatre Wales and others.
• Catrin Finch is an Artist-in-Residence at the College and recently enrolled as a postgraduate student to develop her own compositions. She led the partnership bid with the Royal Welsh College to bring the World Harp Congress to Cardiff in 2020.
• International Chairs supported by the Jane Hodge Foundation include Michael Sheen, Matthew Rhys, Carlo Rizzi and Paul Watkins. Vice Presidents include Bryn Terfel and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
• The College has enjoyed unprecedented success in the UK’s most prestigious design award, The Linbury Prize. Six of the 12 recent finalists were graduates, with two of them going on to win the prize. The many previous winners have gone on to work with Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Court, Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, and the National Theatre.
• The MA Opera Performance course also celebrates its fifth anniversary. Graduates progress each year to the National Opera Studio and the UK’s leading opera companies. WNO’s David Pountney comments: ‘As a world class opera company WNO need the best possible access to emerging talent. There is no better way to gain than by working directly with the growers!’
• The College’s wonderfully intimate Richard Burton Theatre was opened by the late actor’s daughter Kate Burton. The Burton family also gave their blessing for actors in the final stages of their training at the College to be known as the Richard Burton Company. Outside the theatre sits a bronze bust of Burton – a gift from Dame Elizabeth Taylor, which she presented to HRH The Prince of Wales on the occasion of a Royal Gala to celebrate the College’s 60^th anniversary at Buckingham Palace in 2010.