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Key details

Date

  • 20 April 2023

Author

  • RCA

Read time

  • 1 minute

King Charles III's coronation will be celebrated with a special concert on Sunday, May 7 on the grounds of Windsor Castle, which will be broadcast live on the BBC.

As part of the Coronation Concert, The Royal College of Art along with The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, The Royal Shakespeare Company, and The Royal College of Music will come together for the first time ever to create a spectacular one-off performance.

Based around themes of love and togetherness, the piece will combine music, dance, art and theatre in what will be the ultimate Royal collaboration.

The visual backdrop projected on to Windsor Castle and the stage will showcase artworks by students from The Royal College of Art. At the centre of the show, The Royal Shakespeare Company will perform excerpts from a Shakespeare play, featuring Ncuti Gatwa alongside Mei Mac, Oliver Award nominee for My Neighbour Totoro. The Royal patronages will perform a beautiful arrangement of a classic song from West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, accompanied by the Chorus of The Royal Opera House singing a beautiful choral version of the song. The Royal Ballet's principal dancers, Francesca Hayward and Marcelino Sambé, will also perform a bespoke piece of choreography for the occasion. Alongside the other performers, a string quartet of four Royal College of Music students will perform as soloists: Betania Johnny and Katherine Young on violin, Declan Wicks on viola and Marion Portelance on cello, who will be playing His Majesty's cello, which is currently kept by The Royal College of Music.

Coronation 2023 Red-Blue

This official emblem celebrates the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III on 6 May 2023.

The emblem is created with the flora of the four nations of the United Kingdom: the rose for England, the thistle for Scotland, the daffodil for Wales and the shamrock for Northern Ireland.

These natural forms combine to describe St Edward’s Crown, used for the coronation of British monarchs.

The emblem was designed by Sir Jony Ive, Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, with his creative collective LoveFrom.