Royal Academy of Music
The Academy was founded in 1822 — the oldest conservatoire in Britain — and has occupied its Marylebone Road site, beside Regent's Park, since 1911. Its charter is old, its premises purposeful: a concert hall, theatres and a museum of instruments through which every student passes, and some of which they play.
The museum's collection includes Stradivari instruments kept deliberately in circulation; the Academy's belief is that the greatest instruments are for use, not vitrines. Arthur Sullivan was among the first scholars; Sir Simon Rattle among the more recent alumni; the common room's argument about historically informed performance has run, unbroken, since the 1970s.
Field notes
- The 'Viotti ex-Bruce' Strad is among the museum's played instruments — students bow it by arrangement.
- Arthur Sullivan entered the Academy in 1856, aged fourteen, as its first Macfarren Scholar.
- The Academy's 1911 building was purpose-built; its concert hall survived the Blitz and the 1960s.
Notable connections
In brief — from the field guide
Britain's oldest conservatoire, founded in 1822 beside Regent's Park — with a museum of instruments whose Strads are played by students, and Arthur Sullivan as its first scholarship boy.
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