Composition in the U.K.

<p>Hi. Do anyone here have any experience/impressions/knowledge on 'prestige' with the conservatories in the UK? Royal College, Royal Academy, Royal Northern, Royal Scottish, Guildhall, Trinity, Leeds, to name a few. I'm possibly investigating a future postgraduate application for composition overseas. Any insight you might have I'd be very grateful for. If anybody knows anything about composers at Oxford, Cambridge, etc, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as well. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I don't know much about music applications but the Royal College of Music is treated with reverance in the UK. People are very impressed if you went there. Royal northern maybe second best. Haven't heard of most of the others.</p>

<p>I don't know anything about Oxbridge music programmes. But I think that people who actually want to become musicians usually go to a specialist school like the ones you've listed. I think Holst went to Cambridge (not that it matters as he's obviously long dead). </p>

<p>Try
<a href="http://www"&gt;www&lt;/a>. the student room .co .uk</p>

<p>remove the spaces to find a UK version of this board.</p>

<p>stephmin, you might want to email or pm the poster JIJane who normally frequents the Music Theater forum. My recollection is that she is UK based, and has a good working knowledge of many programs. Again, her expertise (I believe) is in the MT area, but she may have insights or be able to point you to sources of information.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses so far. Interesting that you mention Holst, cupcake, because while I'm unaware if he attended Cambridge or not, I do know that he studied at the Royal College at some point in his education.</p>

<p>I just did a bit of researching, and found that Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, James Galway, Leopold Stowkowski, James Horner (Titanic), Neville Marriner, Andrew L. Webber, and many other 'household' names all attended the Royal College. I guess it's safe to say that the RCM is probably the most significant musical institution in Britain in terms of long-standing history and tradition. However, the alumni list at the Royal Academy is quite impressive as well, with a lot of more recent, younger names of significant composers, like Birtwistle, Bax, Augusta R. Thomas, Arthur Sullivan. As is the Royal Northern - Birtwistle, Peter M. Davies, Alexander Goehr.</p>

<p>I might be completely wrong about Holst! I just remember attending a cambridge seminar where he was mentioned. I play the horn so I have been very involved in the amateur music scene at university, but I am studying Biology, not music.</p>