University News Last updated 26 September
Music fan Tim Walton attended Peter Donohoe’s Celebrity Piano Recital in Bradshaw Hall recently. The recital of three late masterpieces marked Tim’s 2,000th concert hosted at RBC.
Tim recalls that his first concert, which took place in RBC’s former Adrian Boult Hall in Paradise Place, featured then pianist Simon Rattle, soprano Elise Ross, Ulrich Heinen on cello and Margaret Campbell on flute. The performance, which took place on 14 January 1986 included pieces by Schumann, Fauré and Rachmaninov, among others.
Although The Adrian Boult Hall was demolished in 2016, when RBC moved to its current building located on Eastside, by this time Tim had seen a total of 1,172 concerts in this venue.
Tim said: “I only went to a few evening concerts at first, because of work, but I soon started to go to as many as possible when time permitted.”
Tim’s first concert in the new RBC building on Jennens Road took place on 24 October 2017, and the Peter Donohoe’s Celebrity Piano Recital on 16 September 2025 was his 828th in the current RBC building – a total of 2,000 concerts across both buildings.
He said: “Choosing my best concerts at the Conservatoire is very difficult!
“There have been many memorable concerts in the new building; too difficult to really choose one. If I had to, it would be the performance of the Busoni Piano Concert with alumnus Emanuil Ivanov in 2024.”
Pictured: (l-r) Principal Stephen Maddock with Tim Walton in Boult’s Bar in RBC.