Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in Greenwich, London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has undergraduate and postgraduate students based at three campuses in Greenwich (Trinity), Deptford and New Cross (Laban).
Faculty of Music
History
Trinity College of Music was founded in central London in 1872 by Henry George Bonavia Hunt to improve the teaching of church music. The College began as the Church Choral Society, whose diverse activities included choral singing classes and teaching instruction in church music. Gladstone was an early supporter during these years. A year later, in 1873, the college became the College of Church Music, London. In 1876 the college was incorporated as the Trinity College London. Initially, only male students could attend and they had to be members of the Church of England.
In 1881, the College moved to Mandeville Place off Wigmore Street in central London, which remained its home for over a hundred years. The college took over various neighbouring buildings in Mandeville Place. These were finally united in 1922 with the addition of a Grecian portico, and substantial internal reconstruction to create a first floor concert hall and an impressive staircase. However, other parts of the college retained a complicated layout reflecting its history as three separate buildings. The building is now occupied by the School of Economic Science.
Trinity moved to its present home in Greenwich in 2001. The east wing of King Charles Court was constructed by John Webb as part of a rebuilding of Greenwich Palace; it was subsequently absorbed into the Royal Naval Hospital complex, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren, which had later become part of the Royal Naval College (RNC). To make the buildings suitable for Trinity's use and remove the accretions of a century of RNC occupation required a substantial refurbishment programme. Work to provide new recital rooms revealed that the building's core incorporates masonry from the Tudor palace. The overall cost of the move to Greenwich was £17 million.
Junior Trinity
Many of the college's staff also teach at Junior Trinity, a Saturday music school for exceptional young musicians who are keen on pursuing a musical career. Junior Trinity offers instrumental and vocal tuition for children and young people ages 5–19, along with GCSE and A-Level courses in Music and Music Technology for older students. Many students of Junior Trinity often continue their musical studies at top conservatoires and universities across the country. Trinity was the first music college to create such a department, and many conservatoires have now followed in Trinity's steps.
Admission
Admission into the Faculty of Music is by competitive auditions, held annually in November or December and March or April. The Faculty of Dance asks for similar qualifications and entry is also by audition; auditions are held at Trinity Laban itself and also at selected venues across Europe and the US. The Conservatoire has an acceptance rate of around 9.9% making Trinity Laban one of the most selective schools in the UK and Europe.
Trinity College London
Trinity College London was founded in 1877 as the external examinations board of Trinity College of Music. Today, the board's examinations are taken by students in over 60 countries, giving external students the opportunity to attain qualifications across a range of disciplines in the performing arts and arts education and English language learning and teaching. Trinity College London is based at the Blue Fin Building in central London. Trinity College London validated Trinity College of Music's Graduate Diploma (the GTCL) before it was replaced by the BMus model in 1997.
Trinity College of Music's historical association with the Masonic Order
Trinity College of Music has a historical association with Freemasonry, with the Trinity College Lodge No 1765 being founded in 1878 by seven early teaching members of the college who were freemasons, including the founder, the Reverend Henry George Bonavia Hunt. In the past, freemasonry was an important though private feature of the life of the College, among both members of staff and the undergraduate and postgraduate men. Trinity College Lodge is no longer associated with the college, since no member of the college belongs to it. However, by co-incidence, the College's patron, the Duke of Kent, has been Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England since 1968.