Page 126 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

Huw Humphreys

The performance centre had long been a growing priority for the development of the school, and
when it finally came to fruition it had been 17 years on the drawing board, gently pushed along by
the paternal Corporation of London, the wealthiest local authority in the country. “The corporation
is often painted as bureaucratic, conservative, backward looking, difficult… So it can be, but
every now and then it does have the capacity to do something really shattering” said the former
principal, Sir Barry Ife. “And they’ve done it here, as they did with the Barbican”.

And the partnership is looking earnestly into the future. Planning meetings for the new Centre for
Music involving the LSO, the Barbican and the Guildhall are on a weekly basis, though it may be
ten years before it opens, “…looking at things like our production arts, how music in the future
may have more audio visual cross collaboration approaches, digital benefits, web digital benefits
of dissemination…” Vaughan says.
And in May the partnership is to launch a new research institute into the performing arts and
social impact, so that when the centre is built the institute will be able to hit the ground running
and move in as an intrinsic part.

Meanwhile, the Guildhall has grown from the 900 students of 2013 to 1,100, and Milton Court
has developed its role both as a public venue and a conservatoire workshop. It has more than
300 public performances a year, jointly programmed by Vaughan and Humphreys, who meet
about once a week informally to discuss projects, some which they will take back to colleagues.
“It’s second nature to think of the Guildhall when we're programming” Humphreys says. As for
the Barbican having its chamber music hall, Milton Court provides 40 slots a year for the likes of
the Britten Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music and the BBC Singers.
“It’s a fluid relationship” says Humphreys. The Guildhall has its Gold Medal competition in the
Barbican Hall; Guildhall singers performed in Prisoner of the State (David Lang’s reworking of
Beethoven’s Fidelio presented in the Barbican Hall in January); next month the Guildhall
Symphony Orchestra will be playing in the Barbican Hall; student musicians take part in the
Barbican Weekenders and the BBC Total Immersion weekends. “There are real opportunities for
Guildhall artists to appear on stages at the highest level where basically no concession is given
to fact they are students” he says. “That is a priceless opportunity”

The most eye-catching examples of how the Barbican-Guildhall synergy works is in its sharing of
the talents of their artists in residence.