RNCM hits high notes with Finnair

Finnair is one of the good guys of airlines.

The RNCM’s Professor Malcolm Layfield has just been appointed as a UK brand ambassador for Finnair. He describes the partnership as ‘fantastically visionary’. Which he would of course. But it's good to see initiatives like this taking off and involving the city and its institutions.

It prides itself upon providing major links from Manchester to the Far East via its Helsinki hub. These aren't just business links - a key part of its current Local Heroes campaign - but cultural ones too. Their sponsorship of the Royal Northern College of Music’s China development programme is forging powerful bonds with one of the world’s musical hotbeds.

The RNCM regularly packs its instruments and travels east to perform, teach and audition with Chinese musicians, taking advantage of the Finnish airline providing the fastest direct route to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The latest initiative is the launch of the RNCM International Music Competition for Violin and Piano. There's some scope there. An astonishing 45m Chinese children are currently learning the piano with a further 17m studying the violin.

The RNCM’s Professor Malcolm Layfield has just been appointed as a UK brand ambassador for Finnair. He describes the partnership as ‘fantastically visionary’. Which he would of course. But it's good to see initiatives like this taking off and involving the city and its institutions.

Finnair fly twice daily from Manchester via Helsinki to the Far East.

To find out more about services and the Local Heroes, visit www.finnair.com. What’s on at the RNCM, visit www.rncm.ac.uk.