Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music, London in autumn 2026.

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

The Academy opens the 2026/27 academic year with a programme of concerts spanning musical genres. Press release attached.

We have received the following press release;

Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music in autumn 2026

The Academy opens the 2026/27 academic year with a programme of concerts spanning musical genres, including anniversary celebrations for Steve Reich and Janáček, concerts ranging from early music to world premieres, a fully staged opera and a tribute to a musical theatre legend.

Jakub Hrůša, Semyon Bychkov, Ralph Kirshbaum, Véronique Gens, Femi Temowo and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood are named as just some of the world-class artists to make music with Academy students this term

The Academy’s commitment to establish students’ industry connections continues with opportunities to perform at leading venues and festivals such as Wigmore Hall, Crazy Coqs, the Royal Festival Hall and EFG London Jazz Festival concert

Royal Academy Opera stage Strauss’ Capriccio, conducted by the Academy’s Head of Opera Christopher White and directed by Olivia Fuchs.

Online booking opens via the Academy’s website on Monday 13 July - view the full list of events here.
https://www.ram.ac.uk/whats-on

The Royal Academy of Music announces its autumn 2026 season which features the music of Strauss, Stravinsky and Steve Reich through to Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, all showcasing the breadth of Academy talent.

World-class musicians continue to collaborate with Academy students in the 2026/27 academic year. Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Music Director of The Royal Opera and Honorary Member of the Academy, conducts the Academy Symphony Orchestra (ASO) for the first time on 16 October in a concert featuring Janáček’s rhapsody and music from Bartók’s pantomime ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin. On 4 December the Academy’s Klemperer Chair of Conducting and Chief Conductor/Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov, returns to the Academy to conduct the ASO for a programme opening with the music from Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.

The Academy’s SIDE-BY-SIDE series provides students with further invaluable opportunities to perform alongside artists at the top of their profession. On 27 September, just days before Steve Reich’s 90th birthday, the Academy Manson Ensemble will perform Reich’s works in a SIDE-BY-SIDE concert with the London Sinfonietta and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood at the Royal Festival Hall. 

On 10 November the Autumn Piano Festival marks 100 years since Janáček’s visit to the Academy. Students from the Piano Department perform his complete solo piano and chamber duo music, as well as ensemble pieces including the Concertino.

Academy jazz students will also perform at prestigious London music venues. The Academy Jazz Ensemble will take to the Crazy Coq’s stage on 14 November, led by composer and guitarist Femi Temowo, and the Academy Jazz Orchestra perform a special EFG London Jazz Festival concert on 22 November, celebrating the lives and music of Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. At the Academy, Gareth Lockrane leads the Academy Jazz Orchestra in a double bill (9 October). These projects are a chance to see intergenerational music-making with established musicians and emerging young jazz stars.

Audiences can observe Academy students as they learn from great musicians in our series of public masterclasses with award winning cellist Ralph Kirshbaum (17 November), the Academy’s Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano Professor Joanna MacGregor (29 September) and leading sopranos Susan Bullock (5 November) and Véronique Gens (6 November).

Royal Academy Opera presents Strauss’ Capriccio on the Susie Sainsbury stage between 23-27 November. Premiered at the height of the Second World War, Strauss’ introspective and poignant final opera contemplates the creation of art, and how theatre and music ultimately mirror the ‘mystery of reality’.

Following Capriccio, the Royal Academy Musical Theatre Company will take to the Susie Sainsbury stage on 8 December to perform a celebration of an extraordinary life devoted to the stage with Georgie: A Tribute to George Hall. A teacher at the Academy until the age of 101, George Hall shaped generations of many of the UK’s leading actors both at the Academy and as Head of Acting at Central School of Speech and Drama for 25 years. His legacy lives on, honoured in an evening of song, story and tribute.

Find out more at http://www.ram.ac.uk

The Royal Academy of Music moves music forward by inspiring successive generations of musicians to connect, collaborate and create. It is the meeting point between the traditions of the past and the talent of the future.
The Academy has had an inestimable impact on British and international musical life by training outstandingly talented musicians for fulfilling careers for over 200 years. From its outset, Britain’s oldest conservatoire has been associated with some of the greatest names in music including Mendelssohn, Liszt and Sir Henry Wood. More recent alumni include Sir Elton John, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Edward Gardner, Max Richter, Lucy Crowe, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Jacob Collier. Today 750 students from over 50 countries are enrolled on undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes.