The London Academy of Music

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a drama school situated in the west of London, United Kingdom. LAMDA is the oldest drama school in the UK.

LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its Principal is Joanna Read. In recent years, over 98% of LAMDA's stage management and technical theatre graduates have found work in their chosen field within weeks of graduation and the Academy's graduates work regularly at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company,Shakespeare's Globe, London's West End and Hollywood as well as on the BBC, HBO and Broadway. It is registered as a company under the name LAMDA Ltd and as a charity under its trading name London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. There is an associate organisation in America under the name LAMDA in America, Inc., previously known as The American Friends of LAMDA.



LAMDA examinations in the fields of speech, drama, communication and performance taken by external students are recognised byOfqual, the regulator in England and its counterparts in Wales and Northern Ireland. LAMDA accredited examinations at Level 3 or above are recognised within the UCAS Tariff system.

The London Academy of Music was founded by Henry Wylde in 1861 this makes the Academy the oldest of its kind in Britain. Providing training for, and examinations in, various musical disciplines was originally the dominant purpose of the institution. However, providing instruction in spoken English quickly became a core area of the Academy’s work.

In the 1880s, LAMDA began offering speech examinations to the public. Since then, these examinations have been refined and developed into a comprehensive system of performance evaluation. LAMDA Examinations has emerged as the largest Speech and Drama Board in the United Kingdom.

In 1904, the school was amalgamated with several other London music institutions that had sprung up since the academy was founded, namely the London Music School , the Forest Gate College of Music , and the Metropolitan College of Music . Later the Hampstead Academy was also amalgamated. The name was changed to the current name in 1935, under the direction of Wilfrid Foulis. In 1939, it was moved from London due to the war; when it reopened in 1945, it no longer provided musical training.

The past few years have witnessed important growth for the Academy. A move to a larger and more visible home on the Talgarth Road in West London has enabled LAMDA to further develop the campus and training facilities for its students. Furthermore, in June 2004, the Academy became an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama.

Most Academy students are classical performers: strings, piano, vocal studies including opera, brass, woodwind, conducting and choral conducting, composition, percussion, harp, organ, accordion, guitar. There are also departments for musical theatre performance and jazz.

The Academy collaborates with other conservatoires worldwide, including participating in the SOCRATES student and staff exchange programme. In 1991, the Academy introduced a fully accredited degree in Performance Studies, and in September 1999, it became a full constituent college of the University of London, in both cases becoming the first UK conservatoire to do so.

The Academy has students from over 50 countries, following diverse programmes including instrumental performance, conducting, composition, jazz, musical theatre and opera. The Academy has an established relationship with King's College London, particularly the Department of Music, whose students receive instrumental tuition at the Academy. In return, many students at the Academy take a range of Humanities choices at King's, and its extended academic musicological curriculum.

Museum and collections  

The Academy's public museum is situated in the York Gate building, which is connected to the Academy's building via a basement link. The museum houses the Academy's collections, including a major collection of Cremonese stringed instruments dated between 1650 and 1740, a selection of historical English pianos from 1790 to 1850, from the famous Mobbs Collection, original manuscripts by Purcell, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Sullivan and Vaughan Williams, musical memorabilia and other exhibits.

Alumni

Former students include John Barbirolli, Harrison Birtwistle, Dennis Brain, Edward Gardner, Katherine Jenkins, Clifford Curzon, Lesley Garrett, Evelyn Glennie, Elton John, Annie Lennox, Moura Lympany, Michael Nyman, Simon Rattle, Arthur Sullivan, Eva Turner, and Henry Wood.

For many years, the Academy celebrated the work of a living composer with a festival in the presence of the composer. Previous composer festivals at the Academy have been devoted to the work of Witold Lutosławski, Michael Tippett, Krzysztof Penderecki, Olivier Messiaen, Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, as well as Academy graduates, Alfred Schnittke, György Ligeti, British and American film composers Franco Donatoni, Galina Ustvolskaya, Arvo Pärt, György Kurtág and Mauricio Kagel.

In February–March 2006, an Academy festival celebrated the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who first visited London 175 years earlier in 1831. The festival included a recital by Academy professor Maxim Vengerov, who performed on Il Cannone Guarnerius, Paganini's favourite violin. Academy instrumentalists and musical theatre students have also performed in a series of concerts with the Academy alumnus Sir Elton John.