The Royal Conservatory of Music

The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM; French: Conservatoire royal de musique), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Conservatory of Music. In 1947, King George VI incorporated the organization through royal charter. Its Toronto home was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995, in recognition of the institution's influence on music education in Canada. Tim Price is the current Chair of the Board, and Alexander Brose is the President and CEO.

The conservatory was founded in 1886 as The Toronto Conservatory of Music and opened in September 1887, located on two floors above a music store at the corner of Dundas Street (Wilton Street) and Yonge Street (at today's Sankofa Square). Its founder Edward Fisher was a young organist born in the United States. The conservatory became the first institution of its kind in Canada: a school dedicated to the training of singers and instrumentalists, and also to instilling a love of music in young children. In its first year, it hired Italian musician and composer Francesco D'Auria to teach at the conservatory.

The conservatory's initial intake was just over 100, and by its second quarter this number had grown to nearly 300 as its reputation quickly spread. In 1897, the organization purchased a new property at College Street and University Avenue (now site of the Intact Centre) to accommodate its rapid expansion. From its earliest days, it was affiliated with the University of Toronto with the purpose of preparing students for degree examinations and shared its premises with the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music from 1919.

In 1906, Frank Welsman – who became the principal of the conservatory – founded and directed the Toronto Conservatory Orchestra, which became the Toronto Symphony Orchestra two years later.

The period between 1918 and 1924 witnessed a series of mergers among music conservatories in Toronto. The Toronto College of Music was founded in 1888 by conductor F.H. Torrington, and became the first music conservatory affiliated with the University of Toronto. After Torrington's death in 1917, the school merged with the Canadian Academy of Music in 1918. The academy itself had been founded in 1911 by Albert Gooderham, who financed the school out of his own personal fortune and served as the school's only president during its 13-year history. The academy, in turn, merged into the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1924.

Glenn Gould – arguably the conservatory's most outstanding pupil – studied theory, organ, and piano, graduating at the age of 12 in 1946 with an ARCT diploma of the highest honours.

In 1947, King George VI awarded the conservatory its royal charter in recognition of its status as one of the Commonwealth's greatest music schools. The Toronto Conservatory of Music became The Royal Conservatory of Music.

During Ettore Mazzoleni's term as principal (1945–68), the conservatory grew rapidly. Mazzoleni had been director of the Conservatory Orchestra since 1934. Two other prominent figures who contributed to the achievements of this period were chairman of the board Edward Johnson (who served from 1947 to 1959) and Arnold Walter, who was appointed director of the new Senior School in 1946. The Senior School offered a two-year program with professional performance training combined with related courses in theory and history. The initial success of the project gave rise to a three-year program leading to an Artist Diploma, as well as the conservatory's Opera School (begun in 1946), which provided training in all aspects of opera production. These developments led to the creation of the Royal Conservatory Opera Company, which went on to become the Canadian Opera Company in 1959.