RWCMD Autumn What's On: Feast on an Autumn season which sheds new light on the old and celebrates the new

A host of free performances for new audiences to discover at RWCMD

• Six contemporary plays, performed by the College’s in-house Richard Burton Company
• A festive Christmas at the College celebration in music and drama
• Two brand new piano seasons
• The harp, Wales’ national instrument, takes centre stage
• Exciting visiting artists from the UK and around the globe
• More accessible performances than ever before

The College’s Richard Burton Company presents six eclectic plays including the first part of Tony Kushner's multi-award winning epic, Angels In America Part 1 – Millennium Approaches. We visit the London of the past in April De Angelis’ Playhouse Creatures and The Sweet Science of Bruising by Joy Wilkinson. The Caird Studio continues to be home to the best new plays from recent years, the multi award-winning Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall, which premiered at the National Theatre in 2000, and Zinnie Harris’ How to Hold your Breath.

We also welcome Wales based Black RAT Productions’ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and families with young children can enjoy Little Angel Theatre’s stage adaptation of Tim Hopgood’s book Wow! Said the Owl, with accompanying creative workshops.

A Queer Collision by Stuart Waters and Willie Elliot offers audiences a funny and poignant dance performance set against a backdrop of LGBTQIA+ social history.

This season sees the launch of two brand new piano seasons: the Steinway International Piano Series returns, starting with Argentinean pianist Ingrid Fliter, and Llŷr Williams continues his unique relationship with RWCMD, this time in a series of concerts Exploring Genius: Haydn to Schumann opening with a special duo performance with the great tenor Mark Padmore.

Our national instrument, the harp, takes centre stage in all its diversity, from its Gambian cousin the kora, performed by Sona Jobarteh, to Catrin Finch’s new collaboration with Irish fiddler Aoife Ní Bhriain, the electronic Harplands duo FitkinWall, and classical star Anneleen Lenaerts. American star harpist Parker Ramsay and Wales’s own Rhodri Davies also join us for our participatory harp and guitar weekend Taro Tant.

Sinfonia Cymru return to RWCMD with BRIT Award winning saxophonist and BBC Presenter Jess Gillam MBE, and the RWCMD Symphony Orchestra and Chorus present William Walton’s big and brassy Belshazzar’s Feast at St David’s Hall.

A dizzying array of contemporary music includes the spiritual jazz sounds of Matthew Halsall, a tribute to Gavin Bryars in his 80^th year from the Phaedra Ensemble and Laura Jurd, a new take on Welsh plygain carols with Huw Warren and Angharad Jenkins, and Voice Trio’s transcendental musical and visual journey inspired by the music of St Hildegard of Bingen.

There are lunchtimes concerts on offer across the season at both RWCMD and St David’s Hall as our students and visiting artists present short programmes. These include very welcome return visits from two RWCMD alumni: euphonium virtuoso and BBC Young Musician brass finalist, David Childs, and pianist Siwan Rhys, who has invited some of Britain’s outstanding disabled composers to write new piano works for her in partnership with Drake Music Scotland.

Our festive season features annual favourites Christmas on Broadway, performed by our musical theatre singers and musicians, and the WNO Opera Gala, featuring our singers and the WNO Orchestra; and we welcome some ghostly visitors to the Richard Burton Theatre in a unique production of Neil Bartlett’s celebrated adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol developed with integrated BSL in consultation with acclaimed artist and arts access advocate Jonny Cotsen.

There is also a chance to enjoy music played around the Christmas tree in the Carne Foyer, including the extremely popular festive themed AmserJazzTime session to close the season.

Tickets are on sale now.