RNCM wins Times Higher Education award

The Royal Northern College of Music has won the 2015 Times Higher Education award for excellence and innovation in the arts for its 2014 off-site project After the Silence: Music in the Shadow of War.

The three-day programme of events took place at the Imperial War Museum North in July 2014 to commemorate the centenary of the first world war. Over 300 students took part, performing 85 works including 25 world premieres.

RNCM artistic director Dr Michelle Castelletti said: “Excellence and innovation in the arts”; it’s the accolade every artistic organisation would wish to be awarded, and, more so, an educational institution such as a conservatoire. It epitomises everything we do at the RNCM.

“After the Silence was a great example of the exciting and innovative work the College produces, and we are absolutely thrilled that it has been recognised in this way.”

The RNCM was also nominated in the widening participation or outreach initiative of the year category for its children’s opera Into the Labyrinth.

Now in their 11th year, the THE Awards recognise the achievements of institutions, teams and individuals in the UK higher education sector. This year’s winners were chosen by a panel of judges including Alison Johns, chief executive of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education; Sir Deian Hopkin, president of the National Library of Wales; and Joanna Newman, vice principal (international) of King’s College London.

Read more on the Classical Music website