Orchestras bring people together - they employ on a daily basis  skills we all need in our day-to-day lives - collaboration, listening, respect, humility, discipline, and commitment. Through participation in orchestra, students are given a chance to develop their confidence - not only in their playing, but also in their communication and leadership skills, and we hope that they then transfer these experiences into whatever path they choose in life.

Led by internationally-acclaimed conductor Rebecca Miller, the Royal Holloway Symphony Orchestra meets weekly, giving three concerts per year in the Windsor Auditorium. The orchestra endeavours to create a lively, challenging, and social basis for orchestral life at Royal Holloway and comprises students from across the university. They also participate in side-by-side programmes with professional musicians, and through our unique partnership with the Chiltern Music Academy. 

The orchestra has recently performed alongside the London Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Magna Carta 800 celebration in Runnymede, in the presence of HM the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William Duke of Cambridge, and Prime Minister David Cameron. 

The orchestra meets on Wednesday evenings, enabling students from many departments to participate as there are no lectures on Wednesday afternoons. Some weekly rehearsals are used for special workshops, reading sessions, 'come and conduct' sessions, and other activities that will serve to enhance orchestral training, complement repertoire, and enrich the orchestral life at Royal Holloway. Social activities take place throughout the year and are run by the Orchestra Committee.

Sectionals take place throughout the year, led by members of our Instrumental Faculty, and professional orchestral coaches from Royal Holloway's associations with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Past soloists have included Tim Hugh, David Pyatt, Roger Chase, Nicola Eimer, Gemma Rosefield, James Kirby, and Mark van de Wiel. There are opportunities to perform with the orchestra through the concerto competition that takes place each Spring.

Entry is by audition during the first week of term, and comprises performing a short excerpt from a solo piece together with some sight-reading.

The Royal Holloway Chamber Orchestra features members of our Orchestral Scholarship programme as section leaders and others by audition. As opposed to the weekly Symphony Orchestra, the chamber orchestra operates on an intensive rehearsal process, to offer students the experience of adopting to the short-rehearsal processes found commonly in the professional world. 

The orchestra generally gives two concerts per year, and features as part of the university’s annual showcase event at St John’s Smith Square. Repertoire usually focuses on Baroque and Classical pieces, but integrates these with a range of lesser-known and contemporary works, with a recent focus on featuring female composers and composers of colour. 

Soloists include a mixture of professionals and student winners of Royal Holloway's annual concerto competition. The Royal Holloway Chamber Orchestra is the featured ensemble of our unique side-by-side programme with London Mozart Players. 

The orchestra is conducted by the College's Director of Orchestras, Rebecca Miller.

The Choir of Royal Holloway (or Chapel Choir) is considered to be one of the finest mixed-voice collegiate choirs in Britain. Their recordings on the Hyperion label have attracted top reviews from all major music publications. Equally at home on the concert platform, the choir gives around 50 concerts a year with a particular specialism in music from the late renaissance and contemporary music, especially from the Baltic States. The choir also benefits from a unique training programme in collaboration with The King's Singers, an Ensemble in Residence at the College.

Created at the time of the foundation of Royal Holloway in 1886, the choir was originally only for women's voices. The mixed choir now comprises 24 Choral Scholars which are generously funded by Banco Santander as a part of the Santander Universities Scheme. These choral scholars undertake a busy schedule of weekly services, as well as concerts, international tours, recordings and broadcasts. In addition to these, Royal Holloway is also the only university that still maintains a tradition of daily sung morning services.

The choir has recorded eight discs with the Hyperion label since 2009. It is through this relationship with Hyperion Records, and subsequent live performances, that the choir has developed a particular reputation for the performance of music from the Baltic region.

Many new works have been composed for the choir as it continues to enjoy close collaborations with living composers. Carson P. Cooman composed The Revelations of Divine Love, a large new oratorio, for the choir in 2009 and a live recording of the US premiere has now been released by Albany Records in the USA. Other recent commissions include works from James MacMillan, Gabriel Jackson, and Richard Rodney Bennett.

The choir has toured most European countries, the US and Canada (most recently in 2018), appeared in Beijing, and been broadcast on regional and national radio and television all over the world. In the UK the choir regularly broadcasts for BBC Radio 3.

The choir enjoys regular work with different orchestras and instrumental ensembles including the Britten Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Florilegium and the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble. Recently they have developed a vibrant new association with jazz-inspired trio Acoustic Triangle resulting in new compositions from Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock and a number of festival invitations. Other unusual projects have included working with Charles Hazelwood and an electric guitar orchestra formed by Portishead lead guitarist Adrian Uttley.

Recent festival engagements include the Cheltenham Festival (with Dame Felicity Lott and the City of London Sinfonia), Three Choirs Festival (with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble), Spitalfields Festival (with the Britten Sinfonia), Swaledale Festival & Windsor Festivals (with Acoustic Triangle), and a residency at the Presteigne Festival.         

Past singers of the choir include the international soloists Dame Felicity Lott, Susan Bullock, Sarah Fox and many others who now sing with ensembles including the BBC singers, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, The Tallis Scholars and Polyphony. Past organ scholars have attained prominent positions in many British cathedrals and public schools.

The choir is supported by two organ scholars, a Choral Music Administrator (choraladmin@royalholloway.ac.uk) and full-time Director of Choral Music and College Organist, Rupert Gough.

The choir are represented by Edition Peters Artist Management.

The choir has its own website, with news of upcoming performances, their Midweek Music concert series, recordings and information on applying for Choral and Organ Scholarships. See www.chapelchoir.co.uk for more information.

The Royal Holloway Chorus is open to all members of Royal Holloway and is not auditioned. It aspires to high standards while featuring engaging and enjoyable repertoire. There is often an opportunity for solo parts to be taken by members of the choir. There are usually two concerts on campus each year, with one normally featuring orchestral accompaniment.

It is a relaxed and friendly group who welcome all newcomers. In previous years the Chorus has sung the Paukenmesse by Haydn, John Rutter’s Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, contemporary music by Tarik O’Regan and Rihards Dubra as well as Requiems by Brahms and Fauré.

The Founder’s Choir is an auditioned chamber choir of around 30 students. The choir is overseen by the Choral Music Office, but is conducted by senior music students. The choir is sociable and sings to a high-standard, often representing Royal Holloway further afield.

The choir rehearse on Monday evenings, 7:30-9:00, and sing occasional services in Chapel, including their own carol service and a termly Midweek Music concert, as well as giving external performances. In recent years these have included Hampton Court Palace and Westminster Abbey. The choir undertakes a foreign tour each year, and these have included Vienna (2016), Holland (2017), and Poland (2018). There are plans to tour in summer 2019.

The choir aims for a high-standard and expects commitment from its members. It is managed by a student committee who between them run most of the choir’s events.

To find out more, email the Founder’s Choir: founderschoir@gmail.com.

Ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes? Who organises the publicity for an event? How to coordinate and manage a rehearsal schedule?

This special programme is a professional development scheme for those who have a thirst for this field of arts administration or would like to explore a behind-the-scenes view of music. Many of the successful applicants who have participated in this programme have gone on to work in arts administration having graduated, working at institutions such as the Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Winchester College and many more. 

This is a special staff-led programme in which students can apply for positions in one of four teams; Programme Production Team; Publicity & Promotion Team; Technical Event Support Team; New Music Artist Personnel Team. Mentored by curator, event manager and Music Performance Manager at Royal Holloway, Nathan James Dearden, twelve successful applicants will be placed into a team based on their strengths and interests as shown in their application and interview.

The New Music Collective gives a series of new music concerts each year at Royal Holloway, directed by Dr Nathan James Dearden. Its programme features contemporary music by established and emerging composers and regularly features the music of Royal Holloway composers. There are opportunities for students to perform concertos and to collaborate with visiting professional performers including the New Music Ensemble-in-Residence, CHROMA. Recent repertoire has included John Adams's Chamber Symphony, Caroline Shaw's To the hands, Steve Martland's American Invention, Terry Riley's In C, and a much anticipated performances of Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet.  

In 2016, the New Music Collective were the resident ensemble for the inaugural Picture Gallery Composer-in-Residence Scheme. In 2020, New Music Collective performed as part of COMA- Contemporary Music for All’s national new music festival, where performers collaborated on a series of new works by composers at the university. 

Entry to the New Music Collective is open to all, however good sight-reading is essential. If you are interested in singing with this ensemble, please contact Nathan James Dearden. 

Led by Royal Holloway composer and conductor, Dr Nathan James Dearden, the New Voices Consort is a dynamic ensemble whose aim is to present a diverse range of vocal and choral music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to the highest standard, facilitating the opportunity for singers and audiences alike to experience new and exciting music. Recent repertoire has included music by Caroline Shaw, Judith Weir, Michael Finnissy (including one world premiere), Nico Muhly, David Lang, Kerry Andrew, Errollyn Wallen, Howard Skempton, and Gavin Bryars.  

This new vocal ensemble had their inaugural concert as part of an exciting three-day festival in October 2016, Spotlight Series: Finnissy at 70,in the presence of esteemed British composer Michael Finnissy and Master of the Queen's Music, Dame Judith Weir. This event was co-sponsored by the Institute of Musical Research. 

Entry to the New Voices Consort is open to all, however good sight-reading is essential. If you are interested in singing with this ensemble, please contact Dr Nathan James Dearden. 

This Percussion Group is led by percussionist and ethnomusicologist Dr Tom Wagner. Students will explore the sounds and rhythms for an array of percussion instruments. This is a free-form ensemble in which all types of percussionists welcome (tuned/untuned, kit specialists, varied genres, etc.)

Royal Holloway's Department of Music hosts several staff who are specialists in the performance of early instrumental and vocal music, and owns a double-manual harpsichord, a chamber organ, a fortepiano and a chest of viols. The Early Music Ensemble, composed of students and staff, rehearse and perform in the department's concert series and fringe events on a project-basis.

Students receive incomparable mentoring from in-house experts such as Prof. Stephen Rose and Dr Helen Deeming, plus coaching from visiting specialists in period performance such as the one of the UK's leading concert countertenors, Tim Travers-Brown, to Baroque violinist and Leader at the Academy of Ancient Music, Pavlo Beznosiuk.

A professional development programme for jazz, popular music and musical theatre specialists

The Department of Music launched a new programme in 2020 where the College's finest musical theatre, acoustic pop and jazz acts (two or more participants in each group) can receive professional feedback and training on their setlist, prepared music to their performance technique. If you are a musical theatre chorus, jazz quintet to a vocalist and guitarist, this is the programme for you. 

This special programme has seen award-winning jazz singer Irene Serra give a session on gig preparation and performance technique, acclaimed vocal coach Robert Greenhill give a masterclass to our musical theatre specialists, plus a series of digital forums on the music industry with acclaimed vocalist Emily Saunders and PRS for Music. 

The unique Andean Band, the only one of its type in the UK, specialises in the performance of music from the Bolivian Andes and gives a diverse range of performances, often in collaboration with the UK-based Andean musicians. It is directed by Reader in Music Prof. Henry Stobart and performs on his collection of several hundred instruments (panpipes, flutes, drums, and guitars).

Andean Band is usually offered as an undergraduate Ensemble Performance course unit on alternate years (alternating with the Gamelan Ensemble 'Puloganti'), and runs as an extracurricular ensemble open to all at other times.

The Gamelan Ensemble 'Puloganti', directed by Honorary Lecturer Simon Cook, specialises in the Sundanese style of West Java (gamelan degung and salendro) and gives a wide range of performances each year. In 2004 the Music Department purchased its own exquisite set of bronze gamelan instruments ('Gamelan Puloganti') which was shipped especially from Java. It is one of the finest sets of Sundanese instruments in the UK.

Gamelan is usually offered as an undergraduate Ensemble Performance course unit on alternate years (alternating with Andean Band), and runs as an extracurricular ensemble open to all at other times.

Our Korean Percussion Group has started rehearsing and performing on campus and beyond. Led by Senior Lecturer Dr Shzr Ee Tan, the ensemble has explored indoor samulnori and outdoor nong-ak (farmer's music) repertoire.

The group runs as an extracurricular activity on alternate Mondays in the Woodlands Building from 1.00pm - 2.00pm. Contact Shzr Ee Tan for more details of how to get involved.