LONDON - UNITED KINGDOM

Royal College of Music Museum

The RCM Museum is situated at the heart of the Royal College of Music in South Kensington, London, and preserves and displays an internationally renowned collection of c. 1,000 musical instruments dating from the 15th century to the beginning of the 20th, together with a vast collection of portraits, engravings and photographs mostly related to the history of English music. Highlights of the collection include the earliest known stringed keyboard instrument - an upright harpsichord dated c.1480, a guitar signed by Belchior Dias (Lisbon 1581) which most likely belonged to the Medici court in Florence, a fine collection of 17th century English viols and instruments by Alessandro Trasuntino, Giovanni Celestini, Magnus Tieffenbrucker, Joachim Tielke and Jacob Denner.

Given its position in one of the world’s leading conservatoires, the Museum strives to combine careful conservation with access to the playable instruments in its collection and many of them can be heard during public performances and events. It is also active in research projects on the history of musical instrument making and scientific approaches to preservation and use of early musical instruments.

In early 2016 the gallery will be closed to the public and the collections will be accessible exclusively online and by appointment. An entirely new gallery will be built and is scheduled to open to the public by autumn 2018.