This initiative will contribute to the recovery of the physical University in the wake of the pandemic, and is an important signal of Cambridge’s ongoing commitment to the performing arts.
The CMP heralds a step-change in music of all genres for outreach and inclusion, and for wellbeing across collegiate Cambridge. Maintaining a tradition of excellence, it will also seal the University’s position on a world stage for music performance.
The CMP will be a seedbed of experimentation and innovation. A radical commitment to diversity will offer more opportunities to more students than ever before, to explore new styles of music-making and performance.
The Centre will open at the end of the year; in the meantime the search is on for a new Director to take up their post in early autumn.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, said: "At a time of unprecedented stress for the performing arts, I am proud that Cambridge is creating a new Centre for Music Performance. A step-change in the visibility, breadth, reach and role of music performance, it will nurture the highest aspirations of the very best performers, besides offering a wonderful array of opportunities to those with previously limited experience. In the long run the Centre will be a stimulus for interdisciplinarity, research excellence and all-round personal development. I am thrilled to see the CMP go ahead at Cambridge."
Images: Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra, copyright Hideaway Streatham
Conducting and Concerto Competition Winners, Cambridge University Musical Society, copyright Tom Porteous, with kind permission of Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge