Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

🎶🎺 TONIGHT! Holst to Hollywood 🎺🎶

Enjoy a summer evening of concert band classics and feel-good favourites played with style and precision in this exciting collaboration between RBC Wind Orchestra & Brass Band and Tredegar Band.

Tredegar are one of the world’s most famous bands both on and off the contesting stage. At the top of their game, and with 150 years of rich musical heritage, they are the 2025 Welsh Champions and double British Open winners.

Holst’s boisterous Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity sits alongside his First Suite for Military Band, which blends rousing patriotism with his beloved folk dance and a spirited march.

Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture translates impressively from its orchestral original, and John Williams’s Jurassic Park emerges from the opening four notes through the glorious main theme to a fitting conclusion.

📍 Wed 17 Jun, 7pm

🎟️ https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/holst-to-hollywood

🎶🎹 Birmingham International Piano Festival continues! 🎹🎶

Young Artists’ Recitals continue today, before the festival concludes tomorrow, starting with a recital from Domonkos Csabay (Thu 18 Jun, 10.30am), the First Prize winner of the 2016 Birmingham International Piano Competition, playing Chopin Preludes.

Then, there's a Public Celebrity Masterclass: Sir Stephen Hough (Thu 18 Jun, 11.30am), before results are announced for the Young Artists’ Recitals (Thu 18 Jun, 3pm onwards), judged by Professor Shuhua Chen (China), Professor Klaus Sticken (Austria), Pascal Nemirovski (France), and John Thwaites (UK).

Closing the festival is the incomparable Sir Stephen Hough (Thu 18 Jun, 7pm), arguably Britain’s finest living pianist. With a sparkling recital of Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann and more, he draws the Birmingham International Piano Festival to a close.

📍Sun 14 - Thu 18 Jun @ RBC

🎟️ https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/birmingham-international-piano-festival-14-18-06-2026

🌳Into the Woods continues tonight 🌳

More lovely shots from 📸of our fantastic and departments.

Last few tickets remain - https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/summer-opera-2026-into-the-woods

Don't forget - under 18s go free with a paying adult - a perfect introduction to opera for young people!

🌳🌳TONIGHT 🌳🌳

Into the Woods opens at RBC

🎟️Have you got your tickets? 🎟️

Music and Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Book by JAMES LAPINE

By turns magical, moving, and profound, this modern classic proves that every wish has a price—and every story has another chapter...

https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/summer-opera-2026-into-the-woods

Images by Katja Ogrin



Birmingham City University

🎹🎼 Birmingham International Piano Festival 🎼🎹

Over 5 days, 20 young artists give public recitals as part of the Birmingham International Piano Competition!

Also featuring Celebrity Masterclasses and Recitals from: Karl-Heinz Simon, Professor Klaus Sticken, Andreas Frölich, Pascal Nemirovski, and Sir Stephen Hough.

📍 Sun 14 - Thu 18 Jun

🎟️https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/birmingham-international-piano-festival-14-18-06-2026

🎼🎶 If you enjoy music that blurs boundaries to explore new possibilities, this is the concert for you... 🎶🎼

Continuing the Composition department's long-standing connection with the Orchestra of The Swan, Burning Swan is the Conservatoire's annual new music project where student composers devise new music with Conservatoire staff and performers.

Featuring: David Le Page (pictured) and David Gordon, alongside student and graduate performers, Max Knight, Chun Tam, Tobias Bradbury, Qinyu Yao, Jo Nicolae, Evie Ingles, Phoenix Archbold, Lantian Gu and Aidan Teplitzky.

📍Wed 10 Jun, 6.30pm

🎟️https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/burning-swan-10-06-2026

🎶🎭 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire MMus students Thomas Hawkey-Soar, Ethan Jacobs, Ellen Smith and Mairi McGillivary are all part of Igor Stravinsky’s opera, The Rake’s Progress. A dark, comic opera, painting a world where ‘living life to the fullest’ comes at a cost... 🎭🎶

Bringing this opera to life is the British Youth Opera (BYO) programme, a scheme that puts a full-scale production into the hands of some of the UK’s brightest and most exciting young creatives and performers.

Thomas Hawkey-Soar will play the lead role of Tom Rakewell on Wednesday 19 August and Friday 21 August, reflecting the strength of talent at RBC. Currently studying a MMus Performance, he takes on the opera’s central role.

Thomas said: “The Rake's Progress is an opera I've loved from afar for several years, and Tom Rakewell is the kind of role you quietly hope might come your way one day. To have been presented with this opportunity at this stage in my training is something I am incredibly grateful for. I feel fortunate to be approaching the role surrounded by such talented fellow performers and creatives. I'm revelling in the chance to dig into the role and see what I can learn from the process.”

Head of Vocal and Operatic Studies Paul Wingfield said: “We're incredibly proud of the four RBC vocal students who have been cast in this production and for Tom in his title role. It is not only a fantastic opportunity for him to perform a challenging role, but also a fact to be celebrated by our department, which is increasingly seen to punch well above its weight against the other main UK conservatoires.”

🔗 Continue reading here: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/about-us/news/students-take-centre-stage-in-the-rakes-progress