Helena Gaunt The process of appointing the new Principal for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama came to an triumphant conclusion on 9 April when the Board, chaired by John Derrick, confirmed the appointment of Professor Helena Gaunt from 1 September this year. Helena has been Vice-Principal and Director of Guildhall Innovation in
When Easter Day arrived this year I realised that I had had a March in which most of the elements of what was always to be a crowded year came together. This involved my primary role for the year as Principal of the RWCMD with practising and performing on the oboe, conducting the Radcliffe Orchestra
As I come to the end of my year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, this is to note my weakness as a blogger – there never seems to be time to write about what’s going on! So this is catch-up time and I expect there will be a number of posts
The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama collaborated with Welsh National Opera in a significant Opera Gala on 25 November to celebrate their association in creating the David Seligman International Opera School. Conducted by Carlo Rizzi and with the wonderful Welsh National Opera Orchestra, Opera Course students including Huw Ynyr Evans, Xi Jiang, Oscar
Thanks to Diethelm Jonas, I enjoyed two days this month (23 – 24 November) in the Hochschule fur Musik, Lübeck working with Celia Nicklin, Christopher Redgate, Michael Britton of Howarth’s and the Lübeck oboe class. After Chris Redgate’s lecture and recital featuring his 21st Century Oboe and some of the works written for it, I
It was a real pleasure to hear the RWCMD Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform under the direction of David Jones in St David’s Hall on Sunday 19 November. The Chorus of 150 voices opened with a striking performance of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms which also showed off some fine wind and brass playing. Nuno Lucas
I have now completed over a month in my new role as Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and I am enjoying getting to know this wonderful institution. With its large and diverse student population, its very motivated and dynamic staff, with so many performances and events happening and with its
One of the new incentives set up by Okke Westdorp at Codarts Rotterdam is the series of department Open Days that began in January with brass and continued on 5 March with the Woodwind Open Day. It was a privilege to be involved in running this day which combined masterclasses by Juliette Hurel, Julien Hervé,
Thanks to the connection that I made with Jörg Linowitzki two years ago when he visited Codarts Rotterdam to undertake the review of the String Department, I was invited by his Hochschüle in Lübeck to visit the class of Diethelm Jonas on 28 and 29 January. I gave a talk on British and Dutch oboe
I returned to Rotterdam on Monday 25 January now in my new role of supporting the Classical Music Department and its new Head, Okke Westdorp. Monday evening was taken up with a very full Open Podium with some excellent perfromnaces from students, notable a delicious Ma Mère L’Oye from Ellyne Wieringa and Elise de Gast,