The RSAMD promotes a wide range of exciting and innovative professional collaboration opportunities for its musicians with Scotlands leading professional companies.

 

Whether for orchestral musicians, concerto soloists, conductors, chamber musicians, specialist performers or composers,  the range of imaginative schemes available is both extensive and unrivalled.  

 

 

 

For orchestral players, there are 3 pioneering schemes in operation with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Opera.

 

The RSAMD has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with both the RSNO and BBCSSO, and each year students audition in professional circumstances to musicians from both orchestras for places on mentoring schemes which enable RSAMD players to sit in at rehearsals throughout the year.

 

I addition to the ongoing mentoring scheme, the RSAMD and RSNO also run an annual  ‘side by side’ day in which  every  RSNO musician sits alongside an RSAMD student to perform major works from the orchestral repertoire such as Mahler Symphony No 6, directed by an RSNO conductor.

 

The RSAMD and Scottish Opera work together for one major production each year in a unique and unparalleled collaboration. Previous productions have included Prokofievs War and Peace and The Love of Three Oranges, and in January 2011 the chosen work is Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen. The orchestral accompaniment is provided by the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, supplemented by RSAMD students, chosen at auditions held by Scottish Opera. Student performers then sit in each section of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera for the entire rehearsal and performance run, which includes shows in both Edinburgh Festival Theatre and Glasgow Theatre Royal.

 

 

 

The RSAMD also operates several more specialist side by side opportunities with organisations such as the Scottish Ensemble, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. RSAMD string players audition for the chance to perform with Scotland’s prestigious string ensemble, the Scottish Ensemble on one of its annual tours, whilst brass students collaborate with the brass section of the Philharmonia Orchestra in a joint concert, which last year was in Canterbury Cathedral as part of the Sounds New Festival.

 

The RSAMD also plays host to several specialist ‘Ensembles in Association’. These include the  Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Scottish National Wind Orchestra and Red Note. SNJO andSNWOgive regular performances at the RSAMD and elsewhere and offer exciting side by side opportunities, whilst Red Note contemporary music ensemble gives several concerts each season which involve professional contemporary music specialists performing alongside RSAMD students.

 

 

 

The RSAMD is fortunate to benefit from Concerto Days with both the RSNO and BBCSSO on an annual basis. These schemes provide incredible opportunities for selected senior students to rehearse and perform their chosen concerto with either of these great orchestras under the guidance of  international conductors and soloists. The BBCSSO Concerto Day includes a masterclass element and is televised for a documentary before an audience in Glasgow’s City Hall.

 

 

 

The RSAMD collaborates with both the RSNO and BBCSSO to create unparalleled opportunities for its student conductors. The RSNO runs a Conductors Day under the guidance of one of its in house conductors in which RSAMD students direct the orchestra in major repertoire, whilst the BBCSSO stage a highly prestigious conducting masterclasses’, given by BBCSSO Principal Conductor and RSAMD International Fellow in Conducting, Donald Runnicles. Like the concerto day, this is also recorded for TV and made into a documentary by the BBC for its online education programmes.