Discover unique treasures from the RCM Museum and Library collections. Featuring long unseen artworks, historic manuscripts, and unusual and ingenious musical instruments, this exhibition shares rarely seen objects and stories hand-picked from the thousands within the RCM's internationally outstanding collections. Highlights include rarely seen items from the personal collection of opera singer Mary Garden and prints from the former collection of Christopher Hogwood CBE. Instruments from the Royal Collections will be displayed, as well as items celebrating the musical connections between the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the Crystal Palace.
In this new special exhibition, curators Gabriele Rossi Rognoni and Richard Martin have hand-picked 50 fascinating items from the Royal College of Music’s collections for visitors to explore, including ingenious musical instruments, rare historic manuscripts and unique artworks.
A set of engravings and prints, donated to the Royal College of Music by honorary doctorate recipient Christopher Hogwood, following his death, are on display for the first time as well as coloured etchings by British illustrator George Cruikshank who was a friend and illustrator for Charles Dickens. Visitors can also explore the lives of some of the leading sopranos of the 20th century including rarely seen items from the personal collection of Mary Garden, and a portrait of Austrian soprano Hilde Gueden drawn by Milein Cosman. Also featured are instruments from the Royal Collections including a Yueqin from the ancient city of Guangzhou, and items showcasing the musical connections between the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Crystal Palace that housed it.
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How to get there
Royal College of Music Museum
Prince Consort Road, South Kensington, London, Greater London, SW7 2BS
020 7591 4346
Opening times
Tuesday to Friday: 10:15am to 17:45 pm (last admission 5:15pm)
Saturday and Sunday: 11am to 6pm (last admission 5:30pm)
Guided Tours: Wednesdays 12.30pm
Museum Concerts: Fridays 12.30pm
Refurbishments
The Museum has reopened to the public in October 2021 after a complete redevelopment of its building and displays, generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The new Museum consists of a permanent gallery and a temporary exhibition area, of the Weston Discovery Centre dedicated to hands-on interactives and activities for families and schools, the Urs Reist Learning Area, of a climate-controlled performance space and of the Wolfson Centre in Music and Material Culture which supports research, digitisation and conservation of the collections.
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