A game changer: as RPS Conductors programme enters a new phase, I chat to founder Alice Farnham & an early participant, Charlotte Corderoy

Alice Farnham with members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and members of the RPS Women Conductors programme at the Glasshouse including Charlotte Corderoy

In 2014, conductor Alice Farnham formed the Women Conductors programme, initially at Morley College; she joined forces with the Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) to create RPS Women Conductors in 2016, then in 2022, in partnership with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS), a new high-level course was established in Gateshead at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music.

Now the programme is taking a new step and in June 2025 under the new name of RPS Conductors welcomed applications from any conductors at a sufficiently high level who can articulate how – through their lived experience, background or personal characteristics – they have encountered barriers to progress or limited access to an experience like this, and why it would therefore be transformative to their prospects.

This issue of women conductors far from resolved, however. In January 2025, 86% of conductors represented by UK artist managers were male, and 87% of titled conducting roles at UK orchestras were held by men. Addressing this remains a priority for RPS Conductors, and the opportunities presented remain primarily for women, trans and non-binary conductors.

Alice Farnham (Photo: Catherine Ashmore)

I recently spoke to conductor Alice Farnham, about the programme from its early founding to the present day, and I also chatted to conductor Charlotte Corderoy who was part of that first intake, when the first course was run in Gateshead with the RNS.

Stylistic irreverence & eclecticism: Zygmund de Somogyi & Temporal Harmonies at Wigmore Hall

Zygmund de Somogyi

Composer, interdisciplinary artist and writer Zygmund de Somogyi (Zyggy) is one of eight composers on the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Composers programme. Each composer on the programme gets a paid commission and premiere with a noted ensemble, venue or festival, along with dedicated mentoring, and professional support.

Zyggy's time at on the programme culminates in a concert co-created with the trio, Temporal Harmonies Inc (Lydia Walquist, flute, Xiaowen Shang, piano, Mikolaj Piszczorowicz, cello) at Wigmore Hall on 19 April 2025.  Music for the Quarter-Life Crisis feature's the premiere of Zyggy's music for the quarter-life crisis (synth étude), and IN THE EVENT THAT YOU STAY: Trio for flute, cello, and piano, no. 1 (RPS commission), along with music by Caroline Shaw, Kaija Saariaho, Lowell Liebermann, and London Sinfonietta 'Writing the Future' composer Ashkan Layegh.

They describe the programme thus, "We’re aiming to capture a musical distillation of 21st-Century repertoire reflective of today's cultural zeitgeist as experienced by many of our peers: a playful-sincere exploration of satire and resistance, and attempt to find groundedness in the precarious feeling that maybe, just maybe, there’s hope at the end of it all."

Full details from the Wigmore Hall website.

People, ensembles and projects who have made a strong contribution to music and the arts this year: the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards shortlist

Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilèges from Vopera - on the RPS Awards shortlist

The shortlist for the 2021 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards is upon us, and this year the awards reflects very much the spirit of the last year with a new Inspiration Award to celebrate non-professional ensembles who have kept communities connected through the pandemic, and which will be decided by public vote.

There are eleven categories in all, full of people and ensembles who have made a strong contribution to music and the arts in the last year. The shortlist for the new Inspiration Award has a striking list of names, Aberdeen and Phoenix Saxophone Orchestras, Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra, Berkshire, Hilary Campbell and Bristol Choral Society, Orkney Winter Choir and Orkney Camerata, South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus, Themba Mvula and Lichfield Gospel Choir.

The Opera Award shortlist features ENO's Drive & Live: La Boheme, Opera Holland Park [see my reviews of this Summer's operas] and Vopera's innovative on-line version of Ravel's L’enfant et les sortilèges [see my article]. The Young Artist shortlist features horn player Ben Goldscheider [who brought out an innovative centenary tribute to Dennis Brain earlier this year, see my review], contralto Jessica Dandy [who we have been catching a lot on-line] and the Hermes Experiment.

The Singer shortlist features soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn [see my review of her terrific recent Wigmore Hall recital], tenor Nicky Spence [see my review of his performance of Janacek's Diary of One Who Disappeared at Opera Holland Park] and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, the Instrumentalist shortlist features cellist Abel Selaocoe, oboist Nicholas Daniel and violinist Nicola Benedetti. All amazing names and difficult to select individual winners.

In the Storytelling category it is lovely to see baritone Peter Brathwaite, for his In Their Voices series on BBC Radio 3, alongside Kadiatu Kanneh Mason and Kate Kennedy. Composers on the shortlist include Dun Yun, Huw Watkins, Laura Bowler, Dani Howard, Mark Simpson, Mark-Anthony Turnage spread across two awards.  Organisations and projects include ENO Breathe, Live Music Now, Orchestras for All, Opera North & Leeds Playhouse, chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Riot Ensemble.

The full list is at the Royal Philharmonic Society website, and the awards ceremony takes place at Wigmore Hall on 1 November 2021.

RPS Young Musicians in action

The Pelleas Ensemble

The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) supports a number of young musicians each year, in 2017, the RPS made awards to young musicians and composers to the tune of £91,000 and it supports over 100 young musicians annually through its RPS Young Musicians Programme.

On Wednesday 24 January 2018 there is the annual RPS Young Musicians recital, in aid of the RPS Young Musicians programme, at 22 Mansfield Street, London W1G 9NR. This gives the chance to hear some of the RPS Young Musicians, and the recital presents the Pelléas Ensemble, which won the inaugural RPS Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award in 2017, and 26-year-old Dutch violinist Amarins Wierdsma, winner of the RPS Emily Anderson Award for string players. The evening also includes a conversation with the musicians, and with the composers Dani Howard and Jack Pepper, both of whome wrote RPS/Classic FM 25th birthday commissions. [Further details from the RPS website]

On Sunday 4 February 2018, conductor Alice Farnham leads the first RPS Women Conductors workshop of 2018, held at Blackheath Halls as part of a weekend marking the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote. The RPS Women Conductors workshops are designed specifically to encourage more women to conduct, and since the RPS joined forces with Women Conductors (formerly known as Women Conductors at Morley) in 2016, over 100 women have had their first experience of conducting through the programme. [Further details from the RPS website]