Featuring everything from electroacoustic wizardry and masterful improvisation to silent film accompaniments and moving meditations on the human condition, the RNCM’s programme of pioneering live performances invites audiences to revel in musical innovation and groundbreaking orchestral performance throughout the coming autumn.
On Sat 25 Oct, the RNCM Session Orchestra embarks on an odyssey through myth, legend and ancient tales of heroism with a stirring, kinetic setlist of classical covers spanning an array of triumphant chart-topping hits.
From Venus (Lady Gaga/Bananarama) and Atlas (Coldplay) to Icarus (Bastille) and The Phoenix (Fall Out Boy), this one-off spectacular reimagines the musical stories of gods and heroes with a fresh orchestral twist, led by soloists from the RNCM’s Pop department.
Book tickets below.
On Fri 14 Nov, the Kantos Chamber Choir recounts the infamous tales of the Salem witch trials in a captivating exploration of human nature through the obscene true accounts of a bygone era.
Based on the Lancashire Trials of 1612, this absorbing programme reflects on superstition and senseless death through a blend of modern music and operatic vocals, with Camden Reeves’ Spells, Remedies and Potions – billed as ‘Black Sabbath and Metallica but for sopranos’ – alongside works by Allegri, Byrd, Hildegard, Wainwright Johnston, and an arrangement of a 17th century Barbara Strozzi song by Ellie Slorach.
This November, renowned organist Darius Battiwalla joins the RNCM to bring dramatic new dimensions to the legend of Goethe’s Faust, the fatefully hubristic figure who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and pleasure.
Set to a screening of F.W. Murnau’s stark, sweeping expressionist silent film adaptation, Battiwalla’s improvised live score imbues the iconic fable with a captivatingly eerie sound in real time, adding a fresh voice to the pantheon of Faust-inspired arrangements which includes works by Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann and Gounod.
Written and directed by award winning contemporary performer, composer, producer, lyricist, and multimedia narrative author Liza Bec, The End Times offers a cataclysmic coming-of-age narrative set against a theatrical soundscape and a magical musical blackboard.
Unfolding within a symbiotic realm of jazz, classical and world traditions that combines acoustic instruments, electronic textures and spiritual undertones, the hour-long staged performance blends science with the supernatural to produce a thrilling mixture of electroacoustic sound, movement and spoken word.
RNCM, 124 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RD
rncm.ac.uk
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Thu 17 Jul 2025
Drawing inspiration from their Northern heritage, Manchester Collective unite with The White Hotel’s poet-in-residence Christ Bryan for an evening of spellbinding lyricism and pulsating rhythm.
Named after The Shakers, an 18th century Boltonian Protestant sect which believed in the power of music to achieve spiritual connection and transcendence, John Adams’ energetic Shaker Loops honours the communities the composer grew up around on America’s East Coast. His work collides with Bryan’s vivid poetry in a maelstrom of innovation and sonic experimentation.