Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - History

History

The Royal Conservatoire has occupied its current purpose-built building on Renfrew Street in Glasgow since 1988. Its roots lie in several different organisations. It began with the establishment of the Glasgow Educational Association in 1845, which formed to provide courses in competition with the University of Glasgow. The Association later became the Glasgow Commercial College, and this in turn became part of the Glasgow Athenaeum in 1847. The Glasgow Athenaeum provided training in commercial skills, literature, languages, sciences, mathematics and music. Charles Dickens gave its inaugural speech, in which he stated that he regarded the Glasgow Athenaeum as "...an educational example and encouragement to the rest of Scotland".

In 1888, the commercial teaching of the Glasgow Athenaeum separated to form the Athenaeum Commercial College, which, after several rebrandings and a merger, became the University of Strathclyde in 1964. In 1890 the non-commercial teaching side of the Glasgow Athenaeum became the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music, which in turn became the Scottish National Academy of Music in 1929, which, in 1944, became the Royal Scottish Academy of Music.

In 1950 the Royal Scottish Academy of Music established a drama department called the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art. It became the first UK drama school to contain a full, broadcast-specification television studio in 1962. In 1968 the Royal Scottish Academy of Music changed its name to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and introduced its first degree courses, which were validated by the University of Glasgow. In 1993 RSAMD became the first conservatoire in the United Kingdom to be granted its own degree-awarding powers.

Research degrees undertaken at RSAMD are validated and awarded by the University of St Andrews in Fife. RSAMD is one of four member conservatories of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.