Trinity College of Music

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Trinity College of Music
Established: 1872
Patron: HRH The Duke of Kent
Students: 744[1]
Undergraduates: 592[1]
Postgraduates: 152[1]
Location: London
Campus: Urban
Website: www.trinitylaban.ac.uk

Coordinates: 51°28′48″N 0°0′36″W / 51.48, -0.01

For other institutions named Trinity College, see Trinity College.

Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatoires, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.

The conservatoire is housed in the elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren. The College also has its own recital hall in nearby Blackheath village.

NB: The name Trinity College, London is now used for an international external examinations board with strong links to Trinity College of Music. Although both organisations belong to the Trinity College Corporation, Trinity College London is separately managed and based at 89 Albert Embankment in central London.

Contents

[edit] History

Trinity College, London or Trinity College of Music, London was founded in central London in 1872 by The Rev'd. Henry George Bonavia Hunt to improve the teaching of church music. The College began as the Church Choral Society, whose divers activities included choral singing classes and teaching instruction in church music. Gladstone was an early supporter during these years. A year later, in 1873, the college became the College of Church Music, London. A system of highly-respected examinations in church music was developed during these times and they were the forerunners of what are now Trinity College London's ATCL, LTCL and FTCL diplomas. In 1876 the college was incorporated as the Trinity College London. Initially, only male students could attend and they had to be members of the Church of England.

Royal Naval College, Queen Mary building
Royal Naval College, Queen Mary building

In 1881, the College moved to Mandeville Place off Wigmore Street in Central London, which remained its home for over a hundred years. The college took over various neighbouring buildings in Mandeville Place. These were finally united in 1922 with the addition of a Grecian portico, and substantial internal reconstruction to create a first floor concert hall and an impressive staircase. However, other parts of the college retained a complicated layout reflecting its history as three separate buildings. The building is now occupied by the School of Economic Science.

Trinity moved to its present home in Greenwich in 2001. King Charles Court was constructed by John Webb as part of Greenwich Palace, subsequently absorbed into Wren's Royal Naval Hospital complex and more recently was part of the Royal Naval College. To make the buildings suitable for Trinity's use and remove the accretions of a century of RNC occupation required a substantial refurbishment progamme. Work to provide new recital rooms revealed that the building's core incorporates masonry from the Tudor palace. The overall cost of the move to Greenwich was £17million.

Trinity has had a long association with Freemasonry. In 1878, just three years after the college was incorporated as the Trinity College of Music, the Trinity College Lodge no 1765 was founded seven members of the college who were Freemasons, including The Rev'd. Henry George Bonavia Hunt. Ever since that time many of the members of staff have had a close association with freemasonry in general and Trinity College Lodge in particular.

The College is now long established as an international music college and has expanded considerably into many branches of arts music and also Speech and Drama, Drama and Dance and Teaching English To Speakers of Other Languages. In recent years Trinity College, London has taken over the Guildhall School of Music and Drama examinations. Places at Trinity are highly coveted and Undergraduate entrance to the college is via CUKAS, the Conservatoires UK Admissions Service, which is a centralised system for applying to a number of UK music colleges.

Trinity College of Music offers a pre-eminent teaching faculty, with many principal players, soloists, choristers and composers from the international stage. It has a reputation for being one of the most friendly and positive environments in which to work and study. A surge of interest in Trinity's new location has brought about increased levels of application, making the College one of the most popular institutions of its kind.

Many of the college's staff also teach at the Junior Trinity, a Saturday music school for talented young musicians who are keen on pursuing a musical career. Trinity was the first music college to create such a department, and many conservatoires have now followed in Trinity's steps.

The current Patron of Trinity College, London is HRH The Duke of Kent, KG. The principal is Derek Avis. Trinity's current Presidents are the distinguised Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras, CH AC CBE, and Dr. Marion North CBE

Trinity has a long and distinguished alumni list in a full range of arts areas.

[edit] Notable Past Pupils

[edit] Notable Staff (Current & Former)

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)
  1. ^ a b c Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.

Samuel Coleridge Taylor - Composer and Professor (1907)

[edit] External links

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