UK conservatoire Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has announced a clutch of stars to be awarded Honorary Membership of the RNCM (HonRNCM) for 2017.
Key figures on the list are actress and singer Patricia Routledge, pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, violinist Henning Kraggerud, and conductor Vasily Petrenko, who will all receive their accolades during the College’s Congregation of Awards in December. Bavouzet, Kraggerud and Petrenko will all receive Fellowships (FRNCM).
RNCM principal, Linda Merrick, said: ‘Each year the RNCM awards Fellowships and Honorary Memberships to world-renowned musicians, conductors, composers, educators and advocates. And 2017 is no exception. This year’s honorands provide a wealth of experience, support and inspiration to the College, and I look forward to welcoming them to our Congregation of Awards in December.’
Routledge is most famous for her TV role as Hyacinth Bucket in the classic British sitcom Keeping up Appearances, but her career in musical theatre dates back to the 1950s. She made her Broadway début in How’s the World Treating You in 1966 and in 1968 won a Tony Award for her role in Darling of the Day. In 1988, she picked up an Olivier Award for her portrayal of the Old Lady in Bernstein’s Candide.
Bavouzet is a recipient of both a Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine award for his recordings of works byDebussy and Ravel. Throughout his career, he has worked with musical luminaries including Pierre Boulez, Andrew Davis, Iván Fischer, Vasily Petrenko, Andris Nelsons and Krzysztof Urbański. He will take the title of International Chair in Piano at RNCM this September. Meanwhile Kraggerud, a prolific Norwegian string player and composer, will take up the RNCM International Chair in Violin, also this September.
Kraggerud is co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music, artistic director of Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and professor at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo.
Petrenko – who holds concurrent roles of chief conductor of Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) and European Union Youth Orchestras, and is principal guest conductor of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia – will support RNCM postgraduate conductors and junior fellows providing training via assistant conductor posts at RLPO each year.
Other figures to make the RNCM honours lists are motorcycle insurance entrepreneur and philanthropist Carole Nash; artist manager Jonathan Groves, now managing director of Groves Artists and former director of the Ingpen and Williams; and Martin Vander Weyer, business editor of The Spectator.
Nash made a generous GBP1m (€1.13m) contribution to the renovations of one of RNCM’s main performance spaces, now known as the Carole Nash Recital Room. Groves, who was a founding board member of Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT), represents RNCM alumni Graham Vick, Sian Edwards, Joan Rodgers and Amanda Roocroft, alongside Mark Elder, Edward Downes, Alfred Brendel, Elisabeth Söderström, Anne Evans, Yvonne Minton, and Donald McIntyre. Groves is chair of the opera committee of the International Artist Managers’ Association.
A former London banker-turned playwright and journalist, Flemish-born Vander Weyer is a member of the RNCM’s board of governors, a trustee of Opera North, and a vice president of Ryedale Festival.