A collection of concert programmes from London-based institutes, arts centres, music centres and conference centres. Some programmes are for concerts promoted by the institute or centre themselves, and have a connection to the work/subject of the institute/centre. Other programmes are from concerts which use the institute/centre as a venue, with no such connection. There is a substantial amount of programmes from the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), dating from 1949 to 1995. These are chiefly from recitals. Some concerts are combined with other art-forms, for example poetry or installations displayed at the institute. The majority of programmes feature contemporary music. There are a few programmes from the British Music Information Centre and a number of programmes from lectures given at the British Institute of Recorded Sound (later the British Sound Archive at the British Library). The earliest programme in the collection dates from 1832; this is a programme from a mixed concert given at the Mechanics’ Institution, Holborn.

Arrangement:
The collection is divided between centres and institutes. "Centres" includes music centres, non-music centres and conference centres. "Institute" includes musical and non-musical institutes and institutions which function as institutes; programmes from the Institute of Contemporary Art are in a separate folder at the end of the "Institutes" sequence. Within “Centres” or “Institutes” programmes are arranged alphabetically by venue name, then chronologically. The ICA material is arranged chronologically.

1832 -

-

Not Specific

• British Institute of Recorded Sound
• British Music Information Centre
• Institute of Contemporary Art
• London [England]
• Mechanics' Institution, Holborn

• 19th century - early 1800-1836
• 19th century - late Victorian 1876-1899
• 20th century - early 1900-1930
• 20th century - late 1971-1999
• 20th century - mid 1931-1970

Centre for Performance History Prince Consort Road London London SW7 2BS Bangladesh

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cph@rcm.ac.uk

020 7 589 4340

020 7 589 7740 

Mon-Fri by appointment

The Centre for Performance History was created in 2004 through the amalgamation of the Department of Portraits and the Museum of Instruments (see the separate entry for the Museum. The College has acquired portraits throughout its history since 1883 and the Centre posseses the most comprehensive collection of portraits of musicians in the UK, amounting to some 346 original portraits and 10,000 prints and photographs. In addition to the iconographical collections and their documentation, the department houses other categories of source material - most notably the largest collection of concert programmes in this country, comprising some 600,000 items dating from 1780 to the present day.