9 - A Changed State of Rivalry

Summary

For nearly a century, the RCM and the RAM had enjoyed an essentially cooperative relationship. On the everyday level, there had been an element of rivalry for staff and students, but the joint venture of the Associated Examining Board (with its benefits of branding and financial profits), the jointly run GRSM diploma and the need to work together to secure Whitehall funding had all meant that at governance level the two institutions worked together. When David Lumsden became Principal of the Academy, this changed. Lumsden, seeing how much the RCM’s profile had benefitted from its Centenary Appeal, broke the traditional consensus with his ‘Pursuit of Excellence’ strategy for the RAM. Relations between the RCM and the RAM were further strained when their funding body (the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council), alarmed at the cost of music college provision compared with how they funded their other client institutions, instituted the Gowrie Review of the London conservatoires. Gowrie recommended their merger – something the RCM was strongly against – and as a compromise, the College and the Academy agreed to operate a joint Vocal faculty.