Experience the best of boundary-breaking live performance at the RNCM

Forming part of the RNCM’s Inspirational Artists programme German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott brings both brilliance and forward-thinking artistry to the concert stage.

With more than 500 million album streams, Ott has cemented a reputation as one of today’s most compelling classical performers.

In this special performance, she pairs works from her latest release on Deutsche Grammophon – the complete nocturnes of John Field – with three of Beethoven’s most introspective sonatas, including the enduring Moonlight,

Celebrating 50 years since its release, the incredible RNCM Session Orchestra transforms Stevie Wonder’s iconic Songs in the Key of Life into powerful, uplifting orchestral creations, with tracks rearranged for the full sound of an orchestra and supremely talented soloists from the institution’s Pop Department.

Lauded British singer-songwriter Lucy Rose comes to the RNCM this March, fresh from her fifth studio album, This Ain’t The Way You Go Out.

Released whilst on the road to recovery following a rare pregnancy-induced osteoporosis diagnosis, Lucy says the latest record marked a new, hopeful era, becoming a much-needed source of escapism.

Speaking about the album, she says: “The more I think about it, the more grateful I feel towards my relationship with music. It’s always known how to help me, allowing me to explore my emotions. But this time, when I sat down at the piano, it’s like music knew that I didn’t have it in me to go deep and dark this time. The escapism I needed was to feel uplifted and reinvigorated, and to feel hope rather than despair.”

Widely regarded as one of the most captivating performers on the world stage today, Abel Selaocoe is known for electrifying performances rooted in tradition yet driven by fearless innovation, gliding between African heritage and Western classical tradition.

Returning to the RNCM next spring as part of both the Legends of Lore and Inspirational Artists series, alongside his Manchester-formed Bantu Ensemble and joined by players from the RNCM String Quartet Studio, Selaocoe brings a genre-defying fusion of virtuosic cello, soaring vocals and improvisation.

Drawing on material from the group’s latest album Hymns of Bantu, the programme produces a spellbinding harmony of traditional Bantu music and works by Bach and Marais, revealing thrilling and unexpected continuities between musical legacies.

Blurring the boundaries between classical music and other artforms, Manchester Collective join forces with renowned dance-theatre company Thick & Tight to present a captivating live performance that draws on queer culture, oscillating between ballet and cabaret, the surreal and the beguilingly poignant.

The programme’s centrepiece, Kaija Saariaho’s Sept Papillons, comprises seven darkly exquisite and devilishly challenging miniatures for solo cello, performed by acclaimed cellist Laura van der Heijden. Completing the impressive line-up, Manchester-based multimedia artist CHAINES presents a new, world-premiere work, synthesising cutting-edge technology with classical training to create uncanny, glitching digital textures.