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Historical Performance (continued)

Historical Performance Open Day | Please check www.ram.ac.uk for details

Laurence Cummings MA, ARCM, FRCO, Hon RAM

(Picture: Photo of Laurence Cummings)

Studied at Oxford University and the Royal College of Music. Has played harpsichord and organ continuo with many leading period instrument groups, including Les Arts Florissants, The Sixteen Choir, Gabrieli Consort and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Has conducted at English National Opera and Glyndebourne. As a soloist has recorded the harpsichord music of Louis and François Couperin. Musical Director of London Handel Orchestra and Tilford Bach Society. Trustee of Handel House Museum. Head of Historical Performance since 1997.

The Course

Historical Performance at the Academy offers intensive training in all aspects of historically-informed interpretation. Specialist training is combined with an involvement in mainstream Academy life, expanding performance possibilities for ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ instrumentalists and singers alike. Principal-study tuition is provided on ‘period’ instruments, and contemporary players are also encouraged to learn an equivalent period instrument. For singers, interpretation classes, coaching and performance opportunities are available in earlier repertoire.

Two baroque orchestras—one a period instrument ensemble, the other a modern instrument group which performs in a style appropriate to its repertoire— regularly rehearse and perform.

The Brass and Vocal departments frequently perform with period instruments. Classes in specialised areas of performance practice (including national styles, tuning systems, ornamentation, compositional techniques, continuo disciplines and dance) are offered by teachers who are active as soloists and in leading period instrument ensembles.

The faculty has close links with the Handel House Museum, and often presents concerts there.

The Academy is custodian to a fine collection of instruments that have been restored for period performance, including violins by Stainer, Jacobs and Klotz, which are available for students. The Becket
Collection, an important orchestra of classical instruments made in Britain during the mid-to-late 18th and early 19th centuries, is used both for orchestral projects and for chamber music. The Academy also boasts a comprehensive library of rare manuscripts and editions.

Mainstream students are actively encouraged to take up Historical performance as a second study.

Resources include a fine collection of original instruments and modern copies, which are available for student use, and a comprehensive library of rare manuscripts and editions. The Becket Collection of period instruments has been kindly loaned to the Academy by Elise Becket Smith.

Your Audition (see p.56 for general details)

Two or three contrasting pieces of your own choice. A harpsichord tuned to A=415 or A=440 is available at London auditions.

TheTeachers

Consultant Visiting Professor
Christopher Hogwood CBE, Hon RAM

Strings
Pavlo Beznosiuk AGSM (baroque violin)
Nicolette Moonen (baroque violin)
Simon Standage MA (baroque violin)
Jane Rogers (baroque viola)
Jonathan Manson AM (baroque cello and viola da gamba)
JenniferWard Clarke Hon ARAM (baroque cello)
Richard Campbell (viola da gamba and violone)
Chi-Chi Nwanoku MBE, FRAM (baroque double bass)
Elizabeth Kenny MA, ARAM (lute and theorbo)

Visiting Professor of Strings
Monica Huggett FRAM (baroque violin)

Voice
Paul Esswood Hon RAM
Ian Partridge CBE, Hon RAM, LGSM

Woodwind
Peter Holtslag Hon ARAM (recorder)
Daniel Brüggen (recorder)
Lisa Beznosiuk Hon RCM (baroque flute)
Keith Puddy FRAM, FTCL (modern and classical clarinet)
Katharina Spreckelsen ARCM (baroque oboe)
AndrewWatts (baroque bassoon)

Brass
See Historical Brass Instruments, p.30

Historical Keyboards
Virginia Black FRAM (harpsichord)
Carole Cerasi (harpsichord and fortepiano)
Terence Charlston MA, MMus, ARAM, FRCO (harpsichord and basso continuo)
Laurence Cummings MA, ARCM, Hon RAM, FRCO (harpsichord and basso continuo)

Visiting Professor of Keyboards
Kenneth Gilbert Hon RAM (harpsichord)

2006–2007 Highlights
Period Instrument Baroque Orchestra (PIBO) at Tilford Bach Festival.
French Baroque project at Sutton House and Hatchlands Park, directed by Lisa Beznosiuk.
Becket Ensemble directed by Pavlo Beznosiuk.
Royal Academy Opera and PIBO performance of Rameau’s Dardanus, directed by Laurence Cummings.
PIBO performance at London Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings.
PIBO performance of JS Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Spitalfields Festival directed by Trevor Pinnock.
Masterclasses with Jane Rogers, Alison McGillivray, James Johnstone, JedWentz and Catherine Mackintosh.
Chamber project with Laurence Cummings.
Baroque Dance with Mary Collins.
Ongoing collaboration with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Past Students
Elizabeth Kenny (’90), lute; Jane Rogers ('91), viola; Ashley Solomon (’91), recorder; Alison McGillivray (’95), cello; Matthew Wadsworth (’97), lute; Rodolfo Richter (’99), violin; Matthew Truscott ('99), violin
Joseph Crouch (’00), cello; Richard Sweeney (’01), lute; Sarah McMahon (’01), cello; Sarah Moffatt (’02), violin; Sarah Sexton (‘02), violin; Huw Daniel (’03), violin; Alfonso Leal Del Ojo (’04), viola.