Library and Information Services, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Tuesday 28 February 2017

Frantic Assembly and State Theatre Company South Australia now on DT +

For Physical Theatre Lovers.

Digital Theatre Plus are  thrilled to announce that Frantic Assembly and State Theatre Company South Australia's Things I Know To Be True acclaimed production by Andrew Bovell, is now available to watch, exclusively on Digital Theatre+.



Click Here for RCS Student and Staff Access to DT+

Plus:

Check out: the class/ production warm ups, Jonnie Riordan, does six warm-up exercises and provides detailed aims and instructions. The exercises vary from a fun 'keepie uppie' introduction, through to more demanding cardio and circuit training sessions, all of which are geared towards developing teamwork, stamina, physical confidence and focus.

Friday 24 February 2017

Ambitious Actor? We Found You an Award to Chase!

The Alan Bates Award is for a talented drama graduate:- 

https://www.actorscentre.co.uk/opportunities/alan-bates-award

This opportunity came up on The Actors Centre website.  Here's a bit more about the award, from their website:-

"ABOUT:  Sir Alan Bates was the Patron of the Actors Centre from 1994 until his death in 2004. He cared passionately about the craft of acting and about the cause of young actors entering the profession. The Alan Bates Award was endowed to commemorate his inspirational work on behalf of the Actors Centre and will be awarded annually to an actor of exceptional talent."The Alan Bates Award comprises of a generous prize bundle designed to equip the winning graduate with everything they will need to launch themselves as a professional working actor. Along with the Actors Centre’s vast range of professional development workshops and courses the winner will receive headshots, showreel and voice-reel, a professionally built website, subscriptions with the biggest industry organisations in in the land, styling, mentorship and many more industry essentials. As an Actors Centre member, they will also be joining a community of professional actors with whom they can network and collaborate.... [Read the whole page] "
https://www.actorscentre.co.uk/ 

Competitive Singer? We Found You a Competition! The Grange Festival ...

Here's part of the press release.  You have to be under 35 years of age.  Most of our singers can manage that! 

"The Grange Festival launches The Grange Festival International Singing Competition, the first country house opera company presenting such a competition

"The Grange Festival today announces that it will present a major new singing competition, The Grange Festival International Singing Competition, formerly The Hampshire National Singing Competition, last held in 2013 and widely regarded as a major forum for young talent from around the country.
As the first country house opera company to present such a competition, the ambitious undertaking underlines The Grange Festival’s desire to extend its work outside the summer opera season, offering a broader and more dynamic range of events than ever before, as well as its artistic vision to nurture the careers of young singers... "

Clarsach in Dundee: Simon Chadwick Lunchtime Concert on St David's Day

If you happen to be in Dundee on Wednesday 1st March at 1.15 pm, why not drop into the Wighton Centre at Dundee Central Library. (It's the top floor of the shopping centre, at the back of the building.)
Details here, on Friends of Wighton News.

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Are you a Postgraduate in Scotland? National Library of Scotland Events in Edinburgh and Glasgow *FOR YOU*



The National Library of Scotland is hosting two research fairs for PG students in Edinburgh on 28.02.17 and in Glasgow on 24.04.17.  It is hoped that a music specialist will be in attendance for one or both events.

Find out! How do non-professional reviewers react to listening to music?



Here's an interesting research event being hosted by the Open University in Scotland at Glasgow's Mitchell Library on 29th March. 
 .

Listening Experience Database study day

29th March 2017 - 11am-3pm

Mitchell Library, Glasgow


The Listening Experience Database project has been running for almost 4 years and is collecting evidence through the writings of non-professional reviewers of reactions to listening to music. The project spans all historical periods and all musical styles. Our Glasgow study day will comprise short papers given by members of the project team and will include a demonstration of the database and its use as a research resource.

*  Tickets are free but registration is required. *   

Please visit https://hiddenlisteners.eventbrite.co.uk 

Why not pick up a flyer in the Whittaker Library here at RCS?

Registration closes 20 March 2017. 



 

Delicious Concerts, Performances, Documentaries and more, from Medici TV

http://www.medici.tv/

We're delighted to say that we now have Medici TV for all of our staff and students, who can

access it at the RCS and at home (click here for instructions)

Medici is a streaming service that covers concerts and archived historical concerts, operas, ballets, documentaries, artist portraits, educational programs and master classes. There is so much to get your teeth into!
 

The events that are broadcast live are from venues such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Concertgebouw, Teatro alla Scala, Berliner Philharmonie, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Verbier Festival and Salzburger Festspiele.

It is the largest on-demand library of classical music, which features over 1,800 programs (3,000 original works), including:-


  • concerts and archived historical concerts
  • operas
  • ballets
  • documentaries, artist portraits and educational programs
  • master classes

Saturday 18 February 2017

John Adams Turns 70

John Adams turned 70 on 15th February and this is being celebrated during the 2016/17 season with over 400 performances around the world. It will cumulate with the world premiere of his new opera Girls of the Golden West in California, November and December 2017. Boosey and Hawkes have written a news piece about this celebration which you can find here. If you are feeling inspired then why not check out what the Whittaker Library has of John Adam's material.  

Sir James MacMillan Month in Glasgow

This coming March is Sir James MacMillan month in Glasgow. Nine concerts will take place to celebrate the long association with MacMillan and the city which will include students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. More information about the concerts and MacMillan is available from Boosey and Hawkes news page. The Whittaker Library has an array of material by MacMillan which you can find here. So why not start having a look in preparation for March!

Friday 10 February 2017

Accessible, Captioned Theatre - Stagetext.org

Have you come across Stagetext?  It describes itself as 'a national charity that brings the arts to life for people with varying degrees of hearing loss'.  A recent article in the Action on Hearing Loss magazine (Winter 2016) shares the great news that Stagetext and Digital Theatre have come together to bring acclaimed shows online, complete with captions, so you can watch on a variety of devices in the comfort of your own home.  

Visit the Stagetext.org website - click here.

Competitive Concerto Musicians

We've just been sent programmes for a significant Scottish music competition:-

Edinburgh Competition Festival: 28 February - 12 March 2017

Visit the website to see who the Concerto finalists are.  You'll recognise some Royal Conservatoire of Scotland names amongst both competitors and adjudicators.  Wishing all the best to all concerned!

Tuesday 7 February 2017

Scotland on Screen and The National Library of Scotland at the Kelvinhall in Glasgow

Last year the refurbished Kelvinhall opened to the public with an odd mix of sport and arts. A key part of this new development is the Scotland on Screen archive. Here is a video of them building the project. (Click on image below)



Scotland on Screen allows you to discover and learn about films from the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, Scotland's national collection of moving images.
A wide variety of learning resources have been created by film practitioners and teachers to accompany each clip. Specific topics and groups of films are explored in more detail in Lesson Guides which you can access in-house or online.





A number of short tutorials are available to help you get the most out of Scotland on Screen. These include:

•Editing In MovieMaker
•Moving Image Education
•Close Reading Guide for factual and fictional films

Everyone can:
•Browse and watch all clips on the site (over 15 hours of footage), search by subject or subject area
•Use archive clips as a starter introduction to a new topic
•Enjoy sharing clips and memories with family and community
•Explore the questions and activities independently to deepen your learning
With a login you can also:
•Download high quality clips and use them to make your own creative work

Go along to Kelvinhall with its luxurious state of the art digital viewing facilities or visit the Scotland on Screen website here: (Click on link below)

Scotland on Screen

Have you discovered National Theatre Live?

National Theatre Live.

If you do not know about NT Live you are missing out, its time to discover it. Coming up is Ibsen's classic play Hedda Galber.



In Patrick Marber's new version of Ibsen's play, its an adaption that should not be missed. It's easy not to miss it as there's a live broadcast from the NT's Lyttelton as part of NT Live programme. It will be in cinemas across the country this Thursday the 9th March. Director Ivo van Hove (fresh from directing the David Bowie musical, Lazarus)  has given the play a contemporary performance twist. (Click on link below)

National Theatre Live Hedda Gabler 


Check out The Stage's review (Click on link below)

The Stage


The closest cinema to RCS is GFT and you can buy tickets online. (Click on link below)

Glasgow Film Theatre : Tickets for Hedda Gabler  


Baby Steps, Big Steps: Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum, op.44

Gradus ad Parnassum, op.44

By Andrew Sorensen, Flickr
Composer and London piano teacher Muzio Clementi published his famous piano exercises 200 years ago. He called them "Gradus ad Parnassum".  This is quite an appropriate title.  It means "steps to Parnassus" - a high mountain range in Greece.  In ancient times, the mountain was said to be the home of Apollo and the Muses, so the piano pupil was taking steps to mastering his art. 

It felt like time we got the latest edition for our Whittaker Library.  And we found it, in three volumes edited by scholars Andrea Coen and Costantino Mastroprimiano, and published in Italy by UT Orpheus.  Watch this space - we'll tell you when the three volumes arrive.

Not that we don't have Clementi's op.44 already - we do have some published by Augener, but not the whole opus, and not in a modern edition!  (How remiss!)

You can also access a whole range of older scores of Gradus ad Parnassum on IMSLP - and transcriptions of various sorts, too.

So, Muzio, you can celebrate the bicentenary of your famous piano exercises, still going strong after all these years, and republished in a brand new edition in the 21st century.  Not bad!


Monday 6 February 2017

Off West End Theatre Awards:

Click on the link above which will take you to the full list of Off West End Theatre Awards finalists!

This is a good way to keep up-to-date on what's happening just off the mainstream of performance/ theatre in London.

Shades of Dr Who: The Library Portal

Step into the portal, and start exploring ...

Here at the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, we have our own place in the RCS Portal, where we can share library guides, information about copyright and referencing, and other useful information.  In particular, the library's subject portals contain links to useful free websites (the sort we don't have to subscribe to!), and now also some free open-source articles that have been listed on reading lists.* 

RCS staff and students will find the RCS Portal here:- https://portal.rcs.ac.uk/ 

This is the Library Portal:- https://portal.rcs.ac.uk/library/ 

Subject Portals

You'll find separate pages for different subjects:-
 Much of the RCS Portal is password-protected, for obvious reasons, but the library subject portals are open-access.  

Classical Improvisation


* Musicians studying Classical Improvisation - do take a look at the Library Music Portal.  You'll find a lot of your recommended reading here!