Summer at RWCMD

This summer season is a hub of creativity, from new music and sonic experiences to musical theatre and opera. The Royal Welsh College will be welcoming the Kanneh-Masons as they give their first chamber appearance in Cardiff, celebrating the centenary of jazz giant Miles Davis, and presenting an exhilarating exploration of Wales’ national songbook through a contemporary lens, with RWCMD Director of Music Tim Rhys-Evans and traditional Welsh music virtuoso Patrick Rimes. Plus, don't miss:

Our season of festivals opens with Atmospheres (8 – 10 May) a weekend feast of new music and sound from RWCMD Composers which never fails to delight and surprise listeners. Step into a video game experience in ‘Daisydreaming’… (Fri 8 May) or discover love in the most unexpected places in the one-act musical premiere ‘Why Choose Love’ (Sat 9 May). Horror awaits in the one-act opera ‘The Mirror’ (Sat 9 May), while the heartfelt concert showcase ‘Nothing to see here’ (Sun 10 May) encourages listeners to close their eyes and engage with their other senses. Across the weekend, take a stroll through Bute Park with a bespoke soundtrack curated by our own composers in ‘Soundwalk’ (through the Echoes app), or discover a sound-space dedicated to plastic recycling through the installation ‘Plasticity’ (Fri 8 May).

This year’s AmserJazzTime Festival (21 – 24 May) Festival welcomes special guest appearances by RWCMD graduate and Mercury Prize nominee Joe Webb (22 May), while Jay Phelps (23 May) pays tribute to the iconic Miles Davis album ‘Kind of Blue’ in the centenary year of one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time. Our jazz musicians offer four days of free performances and open the festival with the ever-popular RWCMD Big Band paying tribute to Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band (Thu 21 May).

Describing themselves as a quarter Welsh, the extraordinary The Kanneh-Masons (14 Jun) give their first chamber appearance in the Welsh capital in a special Steinway series finale. Hear Sheku, Isata, Braimah and Jeneba, who have developed into artists of extraordinary charisma and skill, play chamber music masterpieces.

The College’s David Seligman Opera School transport you to an enchanted island in Alcina (26 – 30 Jun), featuring some of Handel’s most famous arias. The combined forces of WNO Orchestra & RWCMD Symphony Orchestra (25 Jun) perform landmark works by Strauss and Rachmaninov, as part of the College’s ongoing partnership with Welsh National Opera.

Accompanied by a band of some of Wales's finest musicians, the RWCMD Chorus celebrates the wealth of Welsh folksongs with new arrangements by Tim Rhys-Evans and folk fiddler Patrick Rimes in Songs of a Nation (3 Jul).

The Richard Burton Company present its annual festival of new writing NEW '26 (5 - 12 Jun) with an all-female line-up of playwrights. Feral Threads (5 – 10 Jun) by Rebecca Jade Hammond explores the collision between toxic masculinity and the perceptions of femininity. The fragility of life is explored in Van Man (5 – 10 Jun) by E V Crowe, and XL Bully (6 – 12 Jun) is a tense, funny and provocative play about feeling threatened by Stef Smith. In collaboration with Sherman Theatre, the Richard Burton Company present the propulsive memory-driven drama, That Last Summer (6 – 12 Jun) from the Welsh writer Azuka Oforka. ‘NEW ’26’ will transfer to the New Diorama Theatre in London (17 – 26 Jun).

Our musical theatre performers return to the Sherman Theatre for a new production of the rom-com classic, Guys and Dolls (1 – 6 July), directed by the founder of Black British Theatre Awards Omar F Okai.

The wonderful young dancers of VERVE (1 May), the international touring company of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and the BAFTA Cymru-winning Matsena brothers and acclaimed Welsh playwright Rhys Warrington present their powerful new production BOY-ISH (15-16 Jun).

RWCMD puppetry department presents the magical world of silent film in Lights, Puppets…Action! (4-5 Jul) featuring visual storytelling, puppetry, live music and creative captioning. Created for 7–9-year-olds, the performance will be accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing audiences.