Performing Arts
Performing Arts
The Prince of Wales enjoys many different types of performing arts, especially music, theatre and opera.
The Prince and The Duchess regularly attend theatre and opera performances and symphony concerts, sometimes at gala charity events and sometimes in a private capacity.
His Royal Highness is President or Patron of more than 20 performing arts organisations, including the Royal College of Music, the Royal Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the English Chamber Orchestra and Music Society, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Welsh National Opera, the Purcell School and the William Walton Foundation.
The Prince also founded The Prince's Foundation for Children and The Arts in 2002 to help more children experience the arts first-hand.
The Prince is President of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and regularly attends performances in Stratford-Upon-Avon, supports fundraising events and attends the company's annual general meeting.
In conjunction with the RSC, The Prince developed the Shakespeare's Summer School to provide children with an opportunity to hear scholarly and critical opinions about Shakespeare and to learn more about the practical business of presenting his plays on stage.
Musical participation
The Prince, who learned to play the piano as a child, sang in the choir of Gordonstoun School, which he attended from 1962 to 1967, and took part in several public performances.
On 1st March 1964, during a school concert of religious music at St Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh, The Prince played the trumpet in the Gordonstoun orchestra.
During his stay at Timbertop, the remote country branch of Melbourne's Geelong Grammar School in Australia, His Royal Highness joined a brass trio. His Royal Highness attended the school for two terms in 1966.
The Prince played the cello during another Gordonstoun concert at St Giles's, and at a charity concert with the Elgin Orchestra at Elgin town hall on 29th March 1967.
While The Prince was an undergraduate at Cambridge, he played the cello in a symphony concert by the Trinity College Orchestra on 4th December 1967.
In June 1978 The Prince of Wales sang with the Bach Choir, of which he is President, at a performance of Handel's Coronation Anthems in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, conducted by Sir David Willcocks.
The Prince, a bass, joined the choir again for a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 21st March 1985, marking the 300th anniversary of Bach's birth.
The Prince hosts a Christmas carol concert at St James's Palace every year, at which the Bach Choir perform for members of the Royal Family and their staff.
Official Harpist to The Prince of Wales
In 2000, His Royal Highness recreated the tradition of harpists being appointed to the Royal Court, by appointing an Official Harpist to The Prince of Wales.
The appointment of Catrin Finch, a Welsh-born student at the Royal Academy of Music, recognised the importance of the harp to the culture and music of Wales, and of supporting young Welsh talent. The second Harpist was Jemima Phillips from Ebbw Vale and the third and current holder of the role is Claire Jones from Crymych, Pembrokeshire.