Michael Gough Matthews

His time in office was marked by a successful resistance to government plans to merge the college with the Royal Academy of Music, and by the building of a new theatre for student performances.

[1] At the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1955 he won a diploma of honour, and the following year was awarded a scholarship by the Italian government, enabling him to study in Rome with Carlo Zecchi.

[4] The Times said of him that, modest and self-effacing, he was an excellent deputy to Willcocks, who had a busy performing and composing schedule, "but when he himself became director his steely determination came to the fore.

[5] The RAM was initially not wholly antipathetic to the proposal, but for the RCM Matthews fought it implacably and successfully, and both institutions retained their independence.

[1] As well as maintaining the RCM's independence, Matthews was proud of recruiting a faculty made up of the highest-quality teachers, and of the construction of the college's Britten Theatre for opera, designed by Sir Hugh Casson, which opened in 1986.

[1] As director, Matthews worked to promote the RCM abroad; he travelled widely throughout the Far East, giving master classes in, and attracting many students from, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.