For one night only – you can experience the magic of nature’s music at Manchester Museum

The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) will take over the glittering galleries of Manchester Museum this summer with a uniquely immersive show that puts live music among the Museum’s world-class collection.

For one night only, on Saturday 6 July, the RNCM is inviting visitors to enjoy themselves with a unique and unforgettable experience – Nature’s Music, curated and presented by music students and guest artists.

Beautiful music amongst Manchester Museum’s wonderful exhibitions? Count us in.

Royal Northern College of Music – Nature’s Music at Manchester Museum

Nature’s Music brings an eclectic soundtrack to some of the museum’s most iconic spaces as RNCM students and guest artists play well-loved and modern compositions inspired by the natural world, including a rare arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending for violin and exceptional chamber choir.

Visitors will take a night time journey through Living Worlds and Nature’s Library, the Fossils and Dinosaurs and South Asia galleries, and more, experiencing musical interpretations of birdsong, wind and water, land and sky, and compositions that conjure up England, Egypt, China, and beyond.

RNCM is showcasing some wonderful music and events at the moment, with the incredible Session Orchestra: Original Artists Edition coming up at the Bridgewater Hall where you’ve got an amazing chance to see future stars perform.

You can check out what they’ve got in store for the rest of the summer at the end of this article.

Guest artists and RNCM’s Community Chorus

Guest artists Trees.R.Good and the RNCM’s brand new Community Chorus will perform in the Main Hall, and visitors can create mementoes of their experience in the Belonging Gallery where they’ll get to preserve a piece of nature in clay.

The Future Is Green

Nature’s Music is part of a calendar of events around the theme of The Future is Green, one of the RNCM’s key campaigns for 2023-24 as it actively seeks to reduce its carbon footprint and to use music as a catalyst to spark discussion
about the climate emergency.

The theme was chosen to reflect the concerns of the College’s current students and the conservatoire’s long-standing interest in supporting Greater Manchester’s net zero targets.

In 2022, the RNCM fulfilled its commitment to remove all investments in fossil fuels and it is now working towards full heat decarbonisation by 2038.

What’s on this summer at RNCM?

The Future is Green features a series of new creative commissions, and some of the highlights coming up in the weeks ahead are:

RNCM Spotlight: Ancient and Natural Worlds: A free concert in which a quartet of oboe, violin, viola, and cello explore Benjamin Britten, Julia Usher, and others to tell the story of the wonders of the world: past, present, and future (Fri 14 Jun, 6.30pm, free).

The Silent Planet: A reimagining of Holst’s The Planets on the 150th anniversary of his birth from Delia Stevens (BBC Radio 3) and BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year Will Pound, performed with RNCM musicians, players from Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and youth-led climate activists Force of Nature, and featuring an original new movement called Earth (Wed 3 Jul, 7.30pm, £10-£21).

RNCM Community Opera presents Silverwood: The debut performance from the College’s new Community Chorus in a piece that tells the story of a local green space under threat from developers, written by the Chorus and current students alongside composer and conductor Kate Pearson and director Jonathan Ainscough (Thu/Fri 4-5 Jul, 8pm, free).

Nature’s Music (Sat 6 Jul, 7pm, last entry 8.30pm) closes the RNCM’s summer season and is on sale now, priced £11 for adults and £6 for students and under-
26s (including booking fee)

Tickets for all performances are available – including Nature’s Music – and you can get them by clicking here