Students' Concerts

"Practice like it means everything in the world to you. Perform like you don't give a damn."

Jasha Heifetz

Performing in public is part of the RMA music programme. Each term culminates in the end-of-term concert held at St Mark’s Hamilton Terrace or another London concert venue. All our pupils take part in these concerts which include solo, chamber music and choral performances. These concerts provide exciting goals for pupils and their teachers for choosing and preparing concert programmes. Regular public performances help the children to become comfortable and free on stage from an early age, to learn to express themselves and to enjoy playing in public and sharing their music with others. Public concerts are also an invaluable experience in enabling the children move forward with their music, as one gets deeper insights into the music having performed it on stage.

These concerts also help our pupils to bond with each other and are a wonderful way for extended families and friends to become part of the child’s music world.

Having an appreciative audience is very rewarding and inspirational. We always do our best to make the children feel that their hard work and dedication is highly valued and that their performances move their audiences.

At the end-of-term concerts the children have opportunities to play several pieces. This provides excellent training in building stamina to be able to play longer programmes.

Needless to say, one has to be well prepared to benefit from public performance. This means consistent work, regular lessons and rehearsals attendance and being ready to go that extra mile to achieve the best one is capable of.

To help our pupils build a bridge between starting a new piece and performing it in public, we run a series of lunchtime concerts at our Sunday venue St Marylebone School for Girls at 1 pm in M1 Studio, which take place every Sunday during term time. These concerts give our pupils an opportunity to play a piece as soon as it is ready and try it out in front of a friendly audience in an informal setting.

On the charitable front, our end-of-term concerts and lunchtime concerts provide opportunities for children from all backgrounds to hear live performances of classical music for free. Children from underprivileged backgrounds also have free entry to all recitals given at St Mark's Church by our gifted young professional musicians and professional musicians of high standing.

Our pupils also take part in external concerts, organised both by the RMA, their partners and other organisations. Such concerts take place both in the UK and abroad at prestigious concert venues, like Cadogan Hall, St Martin-in-the-fields, Britten Theatre, The Guildhall and The Royal Over-Seas League in London and Salle Renoir in Bois Colombes, France.

You can watch some of our pupils’ performances in the Videos section and on our YouTube channel.