Birmingham Conservatoire has been granted a Royal title by Her Majesty The Queen, making it one of a handful of performing arts institutions bearing the moniker.
The historic music school, part of Birmingham City University, will be renamed the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire when doors open to new students this morning. Principal of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, internationally renowned cellist and conductor, Julian Lloyd Webber, said:
“With our new name and suitably magnificent new home we intend to set the global benchmark for music and drama education and performance.
“This is a hugely significant moment for music and drama education in the UK.
“The Royal title bears testimony to the value the Conservatoire rightly places on the importance of the performing arts in all our lives.”
Permission to use the title ‘Royal’ is granted by the Sovereign, acting on the advice of her Ministers. Following careful consideration, The Queen has given her personal approval to the name ‘Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’.
Dating back to 1859, The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious schools of its kind in the world. Today’s news comes less than a month after £57 million pound new campus came into operation, replacing the former site in the city, which was demolished to make way for the Paradise Circus development.
The new building, officially opened earlier this month, boasts five new public performance spaces, including a 500-seat concert hall, a 150-seat recital hall and a 100-seat organ studio.
Furthermore, the new building also includes The Lab, a cutting edge, completely flexible black-box studio, and the first permanent jazz space in any UK conservatoire – the 80-seat Eastside Jazz Club.
Alongside private rehearsal rooms and dedicated teaching spaces for musicians, the five-storey high building has more than 70 teaching practice rooms.
Vice Chancellor of Birmingham City University, Professor Philip Plowden, added:
“This is great news which I believe not only shows the level of confidence in the Conservatoire, and in this University, but also an increasingly strong reputation here in the UK and internationally.
The historic music school, will be renamed the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire when doors open to new students this morning.
It’s taken massive amounts of hard work to get here. This is a proud day for all of us who are part of the BCU community.”
The historic Conservatoire’s new state-of-the-art home is the first purpose-built music college to be constructed in the UK since 1987 and the only one in the country which has been specifically designed to cater for the demands of the digital age.
It sits amongst the University’s wealth of media and recording facilities, including four broadcast standard TV studios, six digital radio studios and Europe’s largest static green screen.
The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire enjoys nearly 70 formal partnerships with some of the world’s most prestigious performing arts institutions, including the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, the National Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Paris and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
