Royal College of Music celebrates International Women's Day

Amaryllis Fleming

The Royal College of Music (RCM) will be celebrating International Women's Day (8 March 2016) with a diverse programme of events including the broadcast on BBC Radio 3 of a lunchtime concert from the college including the premiere of a new work by Judith Bingham. There will also be a public masterclass from Imogen Cooper, student workshops with percussionist Genevieve Wilkins and composer Anna Meredith. College alumnae Amy Green and Charlotte Harding present Over 100 years of Women and the Saxophone, which celebrates the pioneering female saxophonists, composers and bandleaders who were integral to the development and promotion of this instrument.

BBC Radio 3 will broadcast the day’s lunchtime concert live from the college. The Albany Trio, former RCM Junior Fellows, will perform music by Rebecca Clarke and Judith Weir, plus the world premiere of Judith Bingham’s The Orchid and its Hunters. Bingham’s work was commissioned for the Albany Trio. The concert is part of a day of programming on BBC Radio 3 reflecting International Women’s Day by celebrating women in music and exploring the work of female composers, along the theme of Inspiring Women.

Throughout the day an interactive exhibition looks at RCM Women in Music from the last 100 years. Female musicians are firmly rooted in the RCM’s history, from the mill girl and brick maker’s daughter among the first twenty five female RCM scholars in 1883, through the many illustrious alumnae that have studied at the College, including soprano Dame Joan Sutherland, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, cellist Natalie Clein and cellist Amaryllis Fleming after whom the RCM's concert hall is named. Today, women comprise over 50% of the RCM’s student body.