8 - Crossing the RCM Century

Summary

Willcocks led by musical example, and his performances with the College orchestra and chorus helped the success of the Centenary appeal and raised the College’s profile. Willcocks was pleased for the College to undertake concerts of repertoire he had little interest in, as long as standards were high, and so early and contemporary performance flourished. The RCM Centenary was vigorously pursued across the College, and its success raised enough money for the new, integrated, library service, new social space and to build the Britten Theatre. The second Gulbenkian Report (1978) increased public awareness of the unfavourable funding of the conservatoires compared with universities. Relations with Whitehall continued to be difficult, but in Willcocks’s time the College was at last funded to pay its teaching staff on the national pay scales for other higher education institutions.