London College of Music


London College of Music is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate Schools which make up the University of West London in the greater London Area.
LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at Great Marlborough Street in central London until 1991. The college then moved to Ealing and became part of the Polytechnic of West London.

History

In 1996 Thames Valley University created a School entitled London College of Music & Media, which encompassed LCM and a range of media-related subjects such as music technology, radio, journalism and other creative and digital arts. In 2005 LCMM was renamed the Faculty of the Arts, with music-related subjects administered by the Department of Music. Since March 2007 the music department has been operating once again under the title of London College of Music.
Former principals of London College of Music include William Lloyd Webber, composer and pianist John McCabe and Professor Colin Lawson. The current Director of LCM is Sara Raybould. LCM's Chair of Composition and Head of Research is Francis Pott, widely known in particular as a composer of sacred choral music and works for the organ. His works have been performed in some forty countries worldwide.
Past visiting professors at LCM have included Guy Woolfenden, Nick Ingman and John McCabe. A long-running and successful programme of weekly 'Composers' Workshops' has included guest presentations by Stephen Montague, Jonathan Dove, Judith Weir, David Sawer, Judith Bingham, Deirdre Gribbin, Augusta Read Thomas, Param Vir, Philip Grange, Jonty Harrison, Camden Reeves, Nigel Hess, Francis Pott, Andrew Poppy, Simon Holt, John Cameron, Michael Finnissy, the late Geoffrey Burgon and the late David Bedford. Piano master classes have been presented by Martino Tirimo, John Lill, Howard Shelley and several other distinguished artists.

Academics

The external examinations department of London College of Music is known as London College of Music Examinations, and is currently a department of the University affiliated to LCM itself.
The music technology department of LCM incorporates 25 recording studios, plus the Native Instruments Labs. As well as offering music technology courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, LCM is an official Native Instruments training centre and offers Apple certified Logic, Pro Tools and Ableton Live training courses. The music technology teaching staff includes Grammy Award winning record producer Pip Williams, editor Dr Simon Zagorski-Thomas, producer , and long-time Transglobal Underground collaborator Larry Whelan. LCM also has a Reader in Music, the Messiaen scholar and organist Dr Robert Sholl. Over the past twenty years its composition staff has included John McLeod, Martin Ellerby, Nigel Clarke, Dr Laurence Roman, Dr Paul Robinson, Dr Jeremy Arden, the Oscar-nominated film composer Simon Lambros and the current Course Leader for undergraduate Composition within the BMus degree, Dr Martin Glover.

Notable alumni