Annual Report 2023/24
Welcome to Guildhall School of Music & Drama's Annual Report for 2023/24.
You are viewing:
Welcome
Welcome from Professor Jonathan Vaughan
It is always a pleasure to reflect on the many successes of our students, staff and alumni at Guildhall, and looking back at 2023/24 is no exception. The undoubtedly impressive array of activities, achievements and accolades detailed in the following Annual Report demonstrate precisely why Guildhall School has not only maintained but strengthened our reputation as a global leader in music, drama and production arts education.
Our world class training was recognised yet again by the QS World University Rankings in 2024, with the School rising to fifth in the world for Performing Arts, and ranked fourth in the world for Music – included as an individual subject for the first time. We were also delighted to be ranked first in the Complete University Guide’s Arts, Drama & Music League Table 2025, topping the table for a third year in row.
Our students displayed their talents across more than 300 performances in yet another stellar season of events. We celebrated a decade since the opening of Milton Court, with anniversary events showcasing the building’s unrivalled performance spaces, including the largest conservatoire concert hall in London, state-of-the-art acoustics and technical facilities.
Milton Court was also the setting for the Labour Creatives Conference, which featured a keynote speech by then Leader of the Opposition, now Prime Minister, and most importantly Junior Guildhall alumnus Sir Keir Starmer. London Fashion Week also came to Guildhall School with designer Patrick McDowell unveiling his AW24 collection, featuring many contributions from Guildhall staff and students, both onstage and behind the scenes.
As a double bassist, I was delighted to see our premiere music prize, the Gold Medal, go to a double bass player – Strahinja Mitrovic – for the first time in its 110-year history. Congratulations to Strahinja, and also to Romaya Weaver and Katie Ranson, who were awarded the School’s Gold Medals for Acting and Production Arts respectively.
In grant funding, we celebrated our largest research-related award to date, thanks to Dr Toby Young’s Future Leaders Fellowship, awarded by UK Research & Innovation for his Immersive Opera project. Continuing to push the boundaries of innovation, colleagues across our Research, Production Arts and newly launched Guildhall Production Studio teams also received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research to explore how volumetric capture technology could inform the costume design process.
International partnerships remain crucial for reaching talented young artists around the globe and engaging the world’s leading practitioners. I was therefore delighted to announce that Guildhall School has become the first UK partner of Carnegie Hall’s Link Up music education programme, strengthening our ties with the world-renowned New York institution.
Closer to home, we continue to make significant strides towards ensuring Guildhall is accessible and inclusive for anyone who wishes to be a part of our community. 2023/24 included a period of consultation for our now published Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy, which sets out our ambitions plans and objectives to further enhance fairness and inclusivity in the School's working and learning environment.
In 2023/24 we welcomed Emily Benn as the new Chair of the Board of Governors of Guildhall School, and Caroline Haines as Deputy Chair. As elected members of the City of London Corporation, both play a vital part, along with their fellow Governors, in supporting the School’s leadership in delivering our Strategic Plan as we work towards our 150th anniversary in 2030.
The following successes would not have happened without the talent and dedication of a great many people across Guildhall School. I am very proud of their achievements, and grateful for the exemplary efforts they have shown throughout this year. I hope you enjoy looking back at 2023/24 at Guildhall School.
Professor Jonathan Vaughan FGS
Principal
Events highlights
In 2023/24 at Guildhall School we presented a varied programme of over 300 public events – including concerts, drama productions, opera and jazz – with more than two thirds free to attend.
Events highlights
A series of special events to celebrate Milton Court’s 10th anniversary included a special concert from the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra and Guildhall singers under the baton of Joshua Weilerstein, featuring a world premiere by Associate Head of Composition Dr Hollie Harding. Other events marking a decade of Milton Court included an exploration of Rachmaninov’s piano works with alumni Lucy Parham and Sir Simon Russell Beale, Guildhall Jazz Festival in association with EFG London Jazz Festival, and a newly commissioned 10 Years of Milton Court film, which brought together some of the building's closest friends and advocates to reflect on what makes it so special.
Final-year students from our Drama department showcased the skills and experience they’ve acquired during the Acting course across five fully staged productions. In the Autumn Term we presented Ursula Rani Sarma’s adaption of Lorca’s Yerma, directed by Sophie Dillon Monira, alongside Roy Williams’ Days of Significance, directed by Monique Touko. Two Shakespeare plays were staged in the Spring, with Chelsea Walker and Paul Foster directing Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors respectively. The year ended with another adaptation, with Victoria Moseley directing Sally Cookson’s take on Charlotte Brontë's classic novel, Jane Eyre.
We also presented The Road Ahead, a collection of eight screen shorts featuring our final-year BA Actors, screened at the Barbican Cinema. Written by professional screenwriters and filmed in our TV Studio, The Road Ahead marked Guildhall’s first foray into short film and showcased the work of students and professional collaborators from across our Drama, Music and Production Arts departments.
Students from our Music department displayed their talents across a host of public performances and masterclasses, working with and learning from our world-class teaching staff as well as internationally renowned visiting musicians.
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra performed in Barbican Concert Hall, with repertoire including Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast conducted by Head of Opera Studies Dominic Wheeler, works by Unsuk Chin, Bartók and Zemlinsky under the baton of Antony Hermus, and Respighi’s mighty Rome tone poems with alumnus Roberto González-Monjas. The orchestra was also conducted by alumnus Jonathan Bloxham in the Barbican in the final of our most prestigious music prize, the Gold Medal, performing alongside winner Strahinja Mitrovic and other finalists Kosuke Shirai and Heather Brooks.
Principal clarinettist of the New York Philharmonic Anthony McGill was Milton Court Artist-in-Residence for 2023/24, during which he gave a masterclass to Guildhall musicians, and appeared alongside our students in a performance of Mozart’s Gran Partita.
Our partnership with the BBC Symphony Orchestra continued in 2023/24 with Guildhall musicians once again taking part in the orchestra’s Total Immersion days, celebrating the music of Missy Mazzoli and Italian Radicals of the 1960s and ‘70s.
Guildhall pianist William Bracken, violinist Kryštof Kohout and soprano Manon Ogwen Parry presented a recital at Carnegie Hall as part of our longstanding Guildhall Artists in New York series. Closer to home, the winner of the 2023 Guildhall Wigmore Recital Prize, soprano Ana-Carmen Balestra, gave her debut Wigmore Hall recital, accompanied by Aleksandra Myslek.
Our Chamber Music Festival returned for a weekend of captivating performances, bringing together some of the most talented Guildhall students with world-renowned chamber professors.
New professional vocal ensemble Guildhall Session Singers, founded by the Electronic & Produced Music department, gave their debut performance.
In Autumn 2023, our Opera department staged a double bill of operas by Respighi: Maria egiziaca and La bella dormente nel bosco, conducted by Dominic Wheeler and directed by Victoria Newlyn. These were followed in the Spring with the world premiere of A Star Next to the Moon, a new commission by composer Stephen McNeff, directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and conducted by Dominic Wheeler. In the Summer Term, Associate Head of Vocal Studies John Ramster directed Handel’s Alcina, under the baton of conductor James Henshaw.
Jazz highlights at Guildhall in 2023/24 included performances with Callum Au, Josephine Davies, Rufus Reid and Jean Toussaint, as well as the UK premiere of George Russell’s New York, N.Y. Suite, with special guest Tommy Blaize. Our new Head of Jazz Jo Lawry also brought her vocal super-group MOSS to the School for a residency with Jazz department students, culminating in a performance with Guildhall’s Jazz Vocal Ensembles.
In the Summer term we presented Making It, a new three-week long festival celebrating the artistry and accomplishments of our final-year actors, musicians and production artists. Events included Kaleidoscope, a range of self-led performances from final-year actors, GradEx, the Productions Arts graduate exhibition, and Opera Makers, featuring new works written by composers and librettists on our MA in Opera Making & Writing course.
Events highlights
“A beautifully balanced evening positively dripping in musical talent. This is what conservatoire opera is all about.”
Opera Double Bill: Respighi, Colin Clarke, Opera Now (five stars)
"I applaud this cast because it is so rare that one watches a show and finds nothing but exceptional performances from each and every actor."
Much Ado About Nothing, A Young(ish) Perspective (four and a half stars)
“...by any standards the attack and sheen of the orchestral musicians was world-class throughout...These concerto performances could go straight to disc and create a sensation.”
The Gold Medal 2024, David Nice, The Arts Desk (five stars)
“...there is enough talent here on stage and in the orchestra under conductor Dominic Wheeler to give huge confidence for the flourishing of whatever opera’s future may be.”
A Star Next to the Moon (world premiere), Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph (four stars)
"Guildhall School’s jazz department – with Scott Stroman in the role of custodian of its collective memory, and with Jo Lawry as, clearly, a very effective director – showed both its essence and purpose impressively and affectingly. And also gave us, a lucky and appreciative full house of listeners, a very satisfying concert."
Four Decades of Jazz at Guildhall, Sebastian Scotney, UK Jazz News
"I took my seat at Guildhall School of Music & Drama for 'Orpheus' Ball' amongst a fleet of fashionable show-goers and was blown away by the dazzling performance before me."
Patrick McDowell’s AW24 collection, London Fashion Week, Georgia Brown, HELLO! magazine
1 of
Student and alumni successes
Our reputation for excellence attracts exceptional artists, challenging, supporting and encouraging them to achieve the highest standards in their studies and profession. Our training enables them to succeed on the world stage, and we are delighted to celebrate their successes.
Lifelong learning
At Guildhall School we are one of the UK’s leading providers of lifelong learning in the performing arts, offering inspiring training for children, young people and adult learners. Activities include Guildhall Young Artists, our network of specialist performing arts training centres across the country and online, as well as a range of Short Courses and Summer Schools. We are also one of the lead delivery partners for Music Education Islington, the music education hub for the London Borough of Islington, and we lead the London NOYO Ensemble of the National Open Youth Orchestra.
Lifelong learning
In 2023/24 our newly launched Guildhall Young Artists (GYA) network of six centres provided performing and production arts training for around 1700 children and young people. Eight GYA students progressed to undergraduate courses at the School in 2024, with 25 others going onto performing arts degree programmes elsewhere. This brought the total number of GYA students progressing to performing arts degrees to almost 200 since 2020.
Our newest GYA centre, GYA Online, was formally launched, offering high quality music and drama education to those with little access to creative learning. Over 70 students joined this new virtual centre from 16 countries, including Australia, South African and the USA.
Creative highlights for GYA included a partnership with the Cameron Mackintosh Foundation which delivered a dazzling whole School staged concert of Les Misérables. 130 GYA students from all six centres joined 25 Guildhall School student singers, as well as members of the Cameron Mackintosh production teams and musicians of London’s Les Misérables pit orchestra.
The Centre for Young Musicians’ orchestral holiday programme, the London Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO), welcomed Enji Okpara as the 2023/24 season Conductor in Residence, in partnership with Black Lives in Music. The orchestra went on their first international tour since 2019, visiting three cities in Belgium, performing to audiences of nearly 2000 and featuring on Belgium TV. During 2023/24, the LSSO appeared three times at the Barbican Concert Hall, performing works including Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.
All GYA students aged 10 to 18 were invited to submit a new composition for the RELEASE 2024 competition. Nine finalists selected from 114 entries across four categories showcased their diverse new work and received prizes from industry leading composers including Dame Judith Weir (Master of the Queen’s/King’s Music, 2014-24) and Pippa Cleary, the only British woman to compose three West End musicals. Watch all of the finalists' pieces on Youtube.
Our contribution towards Music Education Islington (MEI) continued to deliver a wide range of activities throughout 2023/24, supporting schools, children and young people who previously had little or low access to music provision.
MEI reached 92% of Islington schools through face-to-face teaching, access to online learning platforms, multi-school events, networking and training opportunities for school teachers. 38 primary schools delivered curriculum music lessons, either through a dedicated music teacher or class teachers, and in all cases accessed online recourses. 50% of primary schools also hired instruments through MEI.
MEI tutors taught in 45% of all mainstream schools in Islington and 40% of all Islington primary schools accessed in-school instrumental provision through Guildhall School for at least one year group, reaching a total of 2200 pupils. Six secondary schools also accessed Guildhall School-led in-school instrumental provision, in particular teaching students taking their GCSE in music. Six secondary schools accessed online teaching or music production through our provision.
MEI delivered small group instrumental learning in two Special schools, including Open Orchestras, reaching 32 young people in total. 520 children were reached during MEI’s ‘instrumental inspiration week’, while 145 pupils participated in dedicated in-school singing workshops. MEI also supported five work experience students.
Outside of school, 230 students attended weekly sessions at one of three MEI Music Centers and weekly ‘drop-in’ band provision in cooperation with Islington youth hubs reached approximately 25 young people. Three holiday activities particularly for young people at the risk of offending reached 37 young people.
Regular events and performance opportunities for schools allowed children and young people to develop their performance skills, confidence and sense of belonging, when coming together. These included MEI’s Winter Sing at Union Chapel, Big Sing at Islington’s Assembly Hall, New Sounds Festival at Milton Court, and a performance at Finsbury Park’s School’s Festival.
MEI’s conference day brought together 50 teachers, tutors and industry partners, including young people, to learn and exchange thoughts under the title Harmonizing Horizons: Nurturing Musical Progression from Reception to KS5.
In April 2024, we became the sole delivery partner for the London NOYO Ensemble (one of the National Opera Youth Orchestra’s five regional Ensembles), which rehearses throughout the academic year on Sundays. The Ensemble is made up of 11-25 year-old disabled, neurodivergent and non-disabled musicians.
We celebrated our continuing commitment to supporting NOYO with a relaxed performance at Milton Court Concert Hall in April 2024. National Open Youth Orchestra: Feel the Music featured 24 brilliant young disabled and non-disabled musicians in an uplifting afternoon of music mixing acoustic, electronic and accessible instruments – including the Seaboard RISE and the Clarion, the first ever digital instrument to be assessed by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
Our Short Courses & Summer Schools are led by experienced Guildhall teachers and industry-leading guest tutors, offering an insight into our world-class learning environment in a fun and supportive setting.
During 2023/24, we ran 91 Summer Schools, Easter Short Courses and Evening Courses across drama, music, production arts, skills for the creative industries, and writing, which were joined by 1539 participants.
We offered 38 participation bursaries across our Short Courses to support participants to access training.
At our Summer Schools we welcomed 193 international participants from 44 different countries, including Japan, Poland, Spain, Singapore, Brazil, China and the USA.
We also continued to deliver a range of courses to support continued professional development for those working in the performing arts.
In December 2023 we ran The Knot in partnership with New Diorama Theatre. The Knot was a free week-long intensive training programme for emerging theatre makers, equipping them with essential business and industry skills. The programme intensively supported 25 participants, but reached over 140 practitioners through a range of open events. The programme was especially inclusive, with 60% of participants from Black, Asian or Global Majority backgrounds, 50% identifying as working class and 28% as D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 100% of participants rating the experience as excellent or very good.
The Knot drastically reshaped how I see myself. It taught me that as a freelancer I am and can be both an artist and a business.
This bootcamp has left me feeling empowered, affirmed, and validated in my own practice and vision for what I intend to build in the future.
The Knot participant feedback
Research
In 2023/24, we received our largest research-related funding award to date. Dr Toby Young’s Future Leaders Fellowship, awarded by UK Research & Innovation as part of their initiative for promising research leaders, provided a grant of £1.4 million, to fund Dr Young’s research project Immersive Opera. The fellowship will see Dr Young investigate immersive performance practice and technologies in opera, with the aim of developing new ways of staging and creating opera for the digital age.
Professor Andy Lavender (Provost & Vice Principal (Academic)), Dan Shorten (Creative Director, Guildhall Production Studio) and Vanessa Lingham (Costume Lecturer) were funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to undertake the ARay project. Working in collaboration with Angels Costumes and supported by virtual production studio Target3D, the ARray project was an exploration of how volumetric capture technology could inform the costume design process for theatre and other performance arts by prototyping a digital costume library.
We ran our Postgraduate Research Experience Survey for the first time in 2023/24. In all but one category, positive responses exceeded all benchmarks, and 99% of students were positive about their supervision. Supervisors’ skills, subject knowledge, feedback and development support all received a positivity rating of 100%. Our Research department continues to support the broad range of research work at Guildhall School, through research leave, development sessions, funding and support for application writing.
Innovation
Guildhall School is not only a world leader in education. We also provide award-winning production services and professional development consultancy, drawn from the expertise of Guildhall professionals working at the cutting-edge of our industry.
Innovation
Guildhall Ignite launched in 2023 as the only executive and professional development consultancy from a specialist arts education institution combining accredited coaching and training with specialist coaches from the performing arts.
In 2023/24 we worked with over 166 participants, providing 300 hours of coaching and training in a range of sectors, including arts, education, business, healthcare and not-for-profit. This work is supported by over 27 coaching Associates who are experts in their field.
Clients include Royal Ballet and Opera, Imperial College, IVAR UK, WorldSkills UK and the Royal College of Music. We have also seen demand for Guildhall Ignite’s pioneering leadership programme for the orchestral sector, Leaders On and Off Stage, which develops greater flexibility and creativity, giving confidence and awareness to those in positions of leadership.
Guildhall alumna Lisa Obert (Violin 2011) has said the programme was “insightful, inspiring and thought-provoking.” She adds:
There was a great mixture of information flow, guidance and practice sessions. This programme fills a crucial gap and enables effective communication by strengthening interpersonal skills.
We launched Guildhall Production Studio, building on the work of Guildhall Live Events. The award-winning, full-service production studio employs advanced technologies to deliver captivating results in the public and private sector, bridging creative and commercial projects and working in multiple disciplines across performing arts and technology.
In Autumn 2023, Guildhall Production Studio (then Guildhall Live Events) presented Seraphic at Sacred Heart Church, as part of Lightpool Festival, Blackpool’s annual celebration of light, receiving an approximate footfall of 128,000. Guildhall Production Studio also created a stunning, sustainable twist to the classic Bonfire Night celebration for the Waltham Forest Light Show Spectacular, a light and projection show seen by 17,000 visitors.
In Spring 2024, Guildhall Production Studio provided comprehensive live-event production support for fashion designer Patrick McDowell’s AW24 collection show Orpheus’ Ball at London Fashion Week.
In Summer 2024, Guildhall Production Studio returned to the Barbican to present OrchestRAVE, a spectacular orchestral celebration of UKF’s 15th anniversary, marking a major milestone for UK bass music. Performed live to an audience of 1,450, OrchestRAVE has since been watched online by over 145,000 viewers. The concert followed 2023’s award-winning OrchestRAM, which won both the Concert Lighting Installation and Music Event Lighting categories at the LIT Awards 2023, and was Highly Commended in the London Creative Arts Initiative of the Year category at the London Higher Awards 2024.
Through a successful grant application to the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s CResCa fund (Creative Capabilities and Research), Guildhall School was able to procure a cutting-edge volumetric capture system, created with Holosys by 4DViews. This studio environment allows for motion capture of people and objects ready for use in augmented reality and virtual reality production. In partnership with Target3D, Guildhall Production Studio is now able to offer specialist services in performance capture for commercial and R&D activity.
Access & Participation
Our Access and Participation Plan for 2025/26-2028/29 was approved by the Office for Students in Summer 2024, with no amendments required. The Plan reaffirms Guildhall School’s commitment to facilitating young peoples’ access to inspiring performing arts training, to our support of underrepresented applicants and to the removal of financial barriers that impede the realisation of talent and ambition; ensuring gifted musicians, actors and production artists across the UK can reach their potential and embark upon a creative future.
Get Backstage, our four-day project introducing young people to Production Arts degrees and careers, won the HELOA Best Practice Access, Outreach & Student Recruitment Award in January 2024. Get Backstage 2024 supported 14 young people across four fantastic days, which included practical workshops, a trip to see Wicked and a backstage tour of the National Theatre. Three participants of Get Backstage 2023 received offers for BA Production Arts programmes, with all enrolling in 2023/24.
The Supported Application Scheme’s fifth year was its most successful yet, with 11% of all new entrants in 2023/24 having been supported by the Scheme. Autumn 2023 also saw the first graduating cohort of students who had participated in the first year of the Scheme in 2020, including 2023 Acting Gold Medallist Abdul Sessay.
Originate, the eight-month young actors training programme, run collaboratively with RADA, Theatre Peckham and Young and Talented, was named winner of the Widening Access Partnership category at the NEON 2024 awards, beating tough competition from much larger university partnerships.
35 prospective Acting applicants were supported on three-day Monologue Bootcamps, with one running in Leeds and one in London, in collaboration with Leeds Conservatoire.
One-third of UK undergraduate offer holders attended Get Ready for Guildhall in July 2024, discovering the student support services that will help them during their studies and meeting other offer holders from similar backgrounds. Get Ready for Guildhall has since been awarded Highly Commended in the Best Small and Low Budget Initiative category at the 2025 HELOA Awards.
Get Backstage
"My experience working with Guildhall School staff and students has been incredibly rewarding. The staff members have been supportive and knowledgeable, providing valuable guidance and mentorship. Collaborating with the students has been inspiring, as they bring creativity, passion, and dedication to their work."
Get Backstage 2024 participant
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
At Guildhall School, we are committed to advancing equality of opportunity, celebrating the diversity of our staff and student community, and fostering a cohesive and inclusive culture for everyone. We believe that the inclusion of diverse voices, skills, lived experience and unique perspectives is what makes our community thrive. This enhances our teaching, enriches our research and strengthens our ability to provide an exceptional education to all.
In November 2023, we welcomed our first Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Mohammed Ilyas, and we have since added two further members of the DEI team to support them. Following consultation with students and staff across Guildhall, we have developed and launched Guildhall’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy, 2024-2027, setting out our vision for DEI and outlining our related strategic priorities and objectives for the School.
The delivery and monitoring of the DEI Strategy will be overseen by the School’s DEI Committee, and departmental DEI teams have been formed to support the delivery of the DEI strategy across the School, aligning institutional activities and local priorities by developing and implementing bespoke localised DEI Action Plans. Staff Diversity Networks are also being launched to help foster a more inclusive, supportive and diverse workplace culture.
The Diversity Events Working Group has been established to oversee the planning and delivery of activities to mark and celebrate key dates within the School’s diversity calendar of events. During 2023/24, these included in person and online events to inspire, inform and educate staff, students and other guests for LGBTQ+ History Month, International Women’s Day, Ramadhan, Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Trans Day of Visibility, Mental Health Awareness Week and Pride Month.
Sustainability
At Guildhall School we are committed to ensuring our work has as little impact on the environment as possible. As part of the City of London Corporation, we comply with its Sustainability strategy and policies, and in line with the Corporation, we have committed to be net zero by 2040. We have also committed to reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions from our building and on-site operations to net zero by 2027.
In 2023/24, our Production Arts department successfully delivered its first production to the Theatre Green Book’s baseline standard, with Much Ado About Nothing receiving an intermediate score for its sustainable practices. The Theatre Green Book is an industry recognised expert approach for sustainable theatre making, offering best practice guidance, standards and monitoring for working more sustainably.
We continue to promote environmental awareness to our students and staff, offering training and guidance to help reduce waste and encourage sustainable choices.
Development & alumni relations
2023/24 saw several new opportunities for our supporters to make a difference to our students and their work. The range of projects receiving philanthropic support and the scale of the kindness shown by our supporters to our students has never been more inspiring.
£3.23m
raised through philanthropic gifts
Development & alumni relations
All at the School are profoundly grateful for the generous support from individuals, liveries, companies and trusts. Their contributions enable us to deliver world-class training and innovative projects, nurturing artistic citizens, driving cultural change and inspiring the extraordinary.
Thanks to around 550 donors, philanthropic gifts totalling £3.23 million were received – a testament to the generosity of our supporters, which has enabled the following achievements:
Over 950 scholarships and bursaries were awarded to students across all subjects, including more than 200 for under-18s through Guildhall Young Artists. Each scholarship helps the student to immerse themselves fully in their training without financial constraints, empowering them to unleash their full potential.
The number of bursaries for children and young people up to the age of 18 attending Guildhall Young Artists’ six centres was increased, driving our commitment to access and to attracting exceptional talent. GYA’s composition project was also supported, as well as GYA’s staged Les Misérables concert, which was made possible thanks to a partnership with The Mackintosh Foundation.
400 hours of chamber music coaching delivered by departmental staff and visiting specialists were supported by philanthropic gifts, as were 25 vocal and opera masterclasses delivered by renowned international artists including Roderick Williams OBE, Fatma Said and many more.
Thanks to the generous support of the Wolfson Foundation, Foyle Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and The Guildhall School Trust, £487,500 was raised to enable the transformation of studio and teaching spaces for our Electronic & Produced Music (EPM) department, providing state-of-the-art facilities for over 200 students across the growing EPM programmes and elective modules.
Alongside its existing support for Arts Scholarships, a generous grant from the Leverhulme Trust provides doctoral fellowships for those at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but with a proven record of research. Leverhulme Early Career Fellows for 2023/24 were Dr Malte Kobel for his postdoctoral project around Ornette Coleman’s musical thought and Dr Patrick John Jones for his project Sounding the archive: composition as translation and adaptation.
Thanks to the generosity of the Garek Trust, Hugh Vanstone FGS and George Stiles, we were able to launch our new Backstage Roadshow, a series of free backstage arts skills workshops that will be given directly to UK state schools from 2024/25, introducing children and young people to the variety of creative pathways that exist within theatre, live events, television and film.
It was such a different experience to anything our pupils have done before at school and opened their eyes to a completely different industry that they might seek to work in in the future. It allowed them to be creative and I was blown away by the costumes they created.
Teacher feedback following Backstage Roadshow pilot
Support for our outreach activity enabled the delivery of music therapy provision at New River College in Islington and the Harpley Centre in Tower Hamlets, and funded The Messengers, a project that targets homelessness through its use of music to build confidence and foster collaboration.
Thanks to the remarkable foresight and generosity of Mr Ron Peet CBE, who graciously included the Guildhall School Trust in his will, our students will benefit from scholarship support for the next ten years. This incredible act of kindness demonstrates the profound difference one person can make, leaving a positive and enduring legacy that will shape the future for years to come.
We foster strong relationships with our alumni, bolstered by the dedicated efforts of all our staff (teaching and professional services), who continue to collaborate closely with former students they know well. Beyond these personal connections, we actively engage with an extensive alumni network of over 14,295 individuals. Engagement with our communications continues to increase and bespoke alumni reunions are becoming more frequent, further strengthening these lifelong connections.
The strength and number of our alumni community giving back in 2023/24 was heart-warming. Examples of the contributions from alumni include attending or supporting the gala, speaking at events, and providing mentoring and masterclasses.
In 2023/24, we welcomed the following individuals into our community of Fellows and Honorary Fellows: Anthony McGill, Unsuk Chin, Ashley Zhangazha, Hugh Vanstone, Gillian Laidlaw, Roger Wilson, posthumously Alastair Putt, Geoff Harniess, Andrew Mitchell and Robert Porter. We also presented an historically awarded fellowship to Simon Baker. The Fellowship is our highest accolade and recognises outstanding professional achievement or service to Guildhall School.
Exceptional Giving
City of London Corporation
The Guildhall School Trust
The Leverhulme Trust
Estate of Evelyn Morrison
Leadership Giving
Victor Ford Foundation
Foyle Foundation
The Garek Trust
Estate of Anthony Payne
Hugh Vanstone HonFGS and George Stiles
Rosemary Thayer Scholarship
Wolfson Foundation
Principal Benefactors
Amar-Franses & Foster-Jenkins Trust
Foundation for Young Musicians
Estate of Harold Tillek
Christina and Ray McGrath Scholarship
Estate of Ron Peet
Garfield Weston Foundation
Major Benefactors
City of London Corporation Education Board
Fishmongers' Company
Norman Gee Foundation
Leathersellers' Company
Sidney Perry Foundation
Barbara Reynold Award
Henry Wood Accommodation Trust
C and P Young HonFGS
"Guildhall School is not just a place where exceptional students hone their skills, it is a place where the power of the arts transforms lives. Our scholarship donors are the drivers behind all of this, and I cannot thank them enough."
Aina is supported by the Gillian and Freddie Martin Award
"I am a child of immigrants from very humble backgrounds, so studying to become an actor never felt financially feasible. Thanks to the huge generosity of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, I have been able to afford the privilege of studying what I love, at my dream conservatoire. I now have such a fire in my belly and can’t wait to start my career as an actor"
Adil is supported by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
1 of
A year in review
Guildhall School celebrates its 145th birthday this year, having been founded by the Corporation of London in 1880, and has grown under the stewardship of the City ever since, to become one of the most important cultural assets in the Corporation, and one of the best conservatoires in the world.
The School was fully funded by the Corporation until 2006, when it was designated as a publicly funded Higher Education Institution and began to receive additional funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It is now a registered Higher Education Provider with the Office for Students. Since then, the School has diversified and increased its income streams so that funding from the City Corporation now accounts for c25% of its total revenue, with recurrent funding from the Office for Students and Research England accounting for a further 20%, and the remainder coming from tuition fees, commercial income and philanthropic funding from donors. However, the School still receives substantial in-kind support from the City for a wide range of activities that enable the School to operate effectively. We are immensely grateful to the City for this continued, vital support.
The School operates as a semi-autonomous part of the City of London Corporation, and the School’s Board of Governors includes elected City members, members of Guildhall School staff, the Student Union President, and a number of co-opted senior professionals from the Higher Education, professional services and arts sectors, all of whom are essential in helping the Board ensure effective oversight of the School’s development and operations. I was honoured to be elected Chair of the Board in May 2024.
There is no denying, however, the scale of the financial challenge the School currently faces. Like other higher education institutions, Guildhall is grappling with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and rising costs, as well as the government-imposed freeze on home undergraduate fees (In 23/24, 78% of students were subject to the home fee rate. Had home fees kept pace with inflation over the years, the School would be achieving a balanced position). During the year ended 31 March 2024, the School recorded a deficit of £1.595m, reduced from £2.068m in 2022/23. As such, we have refocused efforts on delivering the 2023-30 Strategic Plan and put the school’s finances on a sustainable footing.
Over the last year the School has conducted a thorough review of its finances to identify where efficiency savings can be made without negatively impacting the quality of our teaching and learning standards or student experience, and where new programmes and activities can be developed to enhance income streams. This work in continuing. The Board, along with the executive, is doing all to ensure the School is in a position to decrease its deficit over the next few years to move back into surplus through growing its fundraising income, expanding existing courses and developing new courses.
The many achievements contained in the 2023/24 Annual Report are a testament to the talent and commitment of Guildhall’s students, staff and alumni. Despite the extremely challenging landscape for higher education institutions, I am confident that the School will be able to meet the challenges asked of it, and continue to inspire the next generation of world-leading artistic talent.
The Honourable Emily Benn
Chair of the Board of Governors
Read our Financial, Higher Education student and Guildhall Young Artists student profiles for 2023/24:
Financial Profile 2023/24
Higher education student profiles
Guildhall Young Artists student profile
