Royal Academy of Music honours University of Chichester tutor
THE Royal Academy of Music have honoured a lecturer from the University of Chichester for his ‘significant contribution’ to the arts.
Vocal tutor William Allenby, who teaches at the University’s Conservatoire, was named on the 2020 honours list following a successful singing career with the Royal Opera Covent Garden, English and Welsh national operas. He has also given broadcasts of musicals and opera on the BBC, most notably as a soloist on Friday Night is Music Night for BBC Radio 2 since 1989.
The Associateship is awarded to alumni of the Academy who have distinguished themselves in the music profession and benefited their field. After a career in opera – and as a headline act on major cruise lines in his own one-man shows – William now leads the University new BA (Hons) in Cabaret Performance, which is the first course of its kind in the UK to provide students with a route to a career in the entertainment industry.
He said: “It is 30 years since I graduated from the RAM where I studied on an Associated Board Entrance Scholarship. I am now scaling back my performing career to focus on my work in higher education at the University of Chichester and at Royal Holloway, University of London. It is lovely to have the achievements of my 25-year full-time performance career recognised in this way.”
The University’s new BA (Hons) in Cabaret Performance trains performers in developing practical skills that specifically cater for a future on-stage, on cruise ships, and in holiday resorts worldwide. Thanks to its immediate popularity, William has already expanded the programme to include undergraduate degrees in Music and Cabaret Performance, Jazz and Cabaret Performance, Song Writing and Cabaret Performance.
In the coming months, West End musical director Dr Stuart Morley, a member of the Royal Academy of Music musical theatre teaching department, will be hosting masterclasses at Chichester.
For more about William’s distinguished honour from the Royal Academy of Music at www.ram.ac.uk/about-us/about-the-academy/honours.
Alternatively find out more about the BA (Hons) in Musical Theatre and Cabaret at the University of Chichester at www.chi.ac.uk/conservatoire.