Royal Conservatory of Music Review

I love how the new construction incorporated the original building.

No customer service. Emailed and called, nobody picks up and unable to leave voicemail. Poor communication and not professional at all. I will not have my child pay for an overpriced exam again. Already charged my exam fee without letting me the exam date and time. No refund as well. Unacceptable.

The venue is amazing. Poorly operated. Cafe closed during the intermission. Limited choices to eat or drink.

Beautiful historic building which once served as McMaster University. The Royal Conservatory is a legendary Canadian heritage site, home of the Glen Gould School and the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists. In 1947 King George VI incorporated it's Royal Charter.
With the old Mazzoleni Concert Hall and the new magnificent Koerner Hall, the Royal Conservatory offers world-class concerts.
Known to many students for their comprehensive exam system with 10 performance Levels, ARCT Performers and Teachers and a corequisite Therapy program, the Royal Conservatory of Toronto has a monopoly on an exam system rivaled only by Conservatory Canada.

Walked around while visiting the city, seemed nice. Did not actually hear a concert so cannot speak on that behalf. Had some cool old instruments like harpsichords and a bronze statue of Liszt.

Attended an event in February and it was such a great time. Staff was all smiles and hospitable!

My son found the 'smart start' program (for 4 year olds) extremely uninteresting--even though he loves music, dancing, playing instruments, and has enjoyed all other music classes he's taken. The classes are large, and often every child in the class does an activity--one by one--and everyone else sits to watch. This means that there's an enormous amount of downtime. Furthermore, the songs and exercises don't change much from month to month.

Given his reaction, I wasn't able to get my son to continue in the class after month 3 or so. Nevertheless, I had to keep paying for the whole year, given the no-cancellation policy at the RCM.

Though it may well work for some kids, I urge you to be extra careful before registering for the smart start program; it will only suit kids already into a slow pace, with lots of observation and sitting.

Attended a wedding here. The venue is spectacular! Staff were super nice. Would totally consider it.

Reviewing as tourist visiting this landmark : this is a beautiful building with amazing architecture. It is the gateway to paths and gardens in the University of Toronto campus area. There is a small, peaceful Cafe inside open to the public. Descent coffee and pastries.

Be careful.

Not only did they botch the dates I wanted for my son's exam, they booked him for the wrong instrument and kept calling him the wrong name in correspondence. With 3 weeks notice they told me they could not accommodate my preferred dates. Even with the faults being on their part they refused to provide even a partial refund for my exam fees.

I am so disgusted by this organization I have pulled my children from classical music lessons and moved them to other activities.

Very elegant and well-maintained building, beautiful architectural elements provide wonderful atmosphere, very professional space

Royal Conservatory publishing now puts the prices on their books up whenever they can. Cutting sales discount margins on the local music stores.... then aggressively selling books directly to students. My local music store has been selling RCM books for 40 years and now with my teacher discount it's not worth him stocking Royal Conservatory. RCM is pushing out the little family stores that have supported their books for decades.

There are tons of great repertoire books that are far more affordable to the average family folks. Disgusted by these new practices and greed. Frederick Harris is NOT a not-for-profit organization don't be fooled. Myself and many peers will not be using RCM as there are many equally good programs out there. You can get a great music education without Royal Conservatory. Support your local print music retailer they are dropping like flies.

The school is focused mainly on traditional western classical music that's old and irrelevant, and like some have said, students aren't trained to play without a score. Come here if you just want to get exam certs and work laboriously on perfecting your classical music performance. Otherwise, if you want to learn about music creation or production, don't even think about it.

Their website isn't informative, just wanted to see what teacher exams are available, they don't even have a list, found a list in the "exam fees" page though! Can't even find what's in those teacher's exams, could only see their online pedagogy course promotion which is about watching few minutes of videos from great teachers, but the rest is your job to submit assignments and respond to posts. Wasn't helpful at all, at least in my experience. And courses offered online don't even have a wide variety.

I had an issue about my history 9 oclc cookie thing, where it asked for my login info, none of my rcmuisc login info worked and the staff were extremely unhelpful, it just redirected us to an autoreply bot that tells you not to ask again even if it's not resolved

Was spellbound by the amazing performance of Anoushka Shankar at this venue.

The hall is very well built, rich with premium acoustics and techs.

The seating at the venue was amazing, as you can see the pic I was seated at the side balcony. The view was amazing, and the sound quality was phenomenal too, even though I was seated in the side balcony the acoustics were balanced and there wasn't any drop or lag.

Would love visiting this venue for more concerts.

RCM
Unprofessional, unorganized, rude customer service, I can still go on and on . They register you and get a money and they put you on another program. Really!!!!!. You can do better , to get that 25 dollars cancelation fee they do anything. Dont ever go there they are scam. Imagine if so many people cancel because they can not get accommodation for the time they choose.

The Royal Conservatory of Music is definitely biased. They promote teachers who have an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music but completely ignore teachers who have actual graduate degrees. They are also extremely expensive. You can get much better music instruction for allot less elsewhere.

My theory exam was cancelled due to Covid-19. RCM ammounced that they will be sending me a email containing my login info for a online exam. However, I did not get that refund, and was suggested to buy another online course/exam. I did so , and RCM refused to refund me for the exam that got cancelled. Absolute ridiculous, I waited 3 hours on toe phone, and the assicoate didn't even sound confident and refused me a refund over the phone.
An overall Scam, Don't buy the RCM online theory courses/exams.

I like this place very much, the sound is very good, the seats on each floor are easy to reach, and the view is very good. We looked at the concert at Jarvis Church and it felt great. Parking is also very convenient, and there is a nice cafe. I really like the way to connect old buildings with new buildings, and there is a very unique atmosphere.

Exams take away the chance to do other activities and they should not only focus on classical music.

good school and lots excellent music teachers there.
this is the best music school to study your instruments in canada

at least my experience with RCM is that they are so inefficient and bureaucracy.no one answers the phone, nobody cares your problem and even they always make thing harder. for example i registered the online ear training course, with 24 hours, it is still not activated. also i have some repaid exam need to refund or reschedule, i called them since April try to figure out but nobody care, sent them email but with a bureaucratic reply, they even didn't read your email carefully. tried to call them, no answer. my son passed the online theory exam in Sept but still haven't receive the certificate and no one sent you email to tell you what to do the next step....totally dispointed.

although their exams are helpful, the RCM is biased, where they should never ever be biased at all: Our music school students register for an exam, then the rcm sends our student a form with a help phone number on it, when our students call this number they get an answering machine outgoing message from one of our competitors stating how they have reached 'so and so' music school. the best music school in the city, please leave a message.

my complaints are accepted and rcm staff agree's with me and state that they will fix the problem BUT THEY NEVER DO. The problem still exists.

Thats why our school as well as some other schools now do our OWN exams [still using rcm books] [gr1 to gr6] Our exams are very popular now and cheaper for the student. We only recommend rcm exams for gr 7 and 8 [for the high school credit]s

Beautiful conference facility with en excellent main auditorium. Washrooms were poorly placed as none exist on the main auditorium level and thus require a trip upstairs or down.

Extremely great teachers. Unfortunately their service desk really ruins the entire experience. Nothing but terrible service and late responses and callbacks. They should get the customer facing process overhauled. Everyone I speak to about this agrees strongly!!!

A spectacular venue for shows, and a great space to have a coffee with friends. A real gem in the area.

As a vendor coming in, our team was really impressed with everything. Accomodating easy to work with staff allowed us to perform @ 110%. Highly recommend this venue for any event, what a gem !!!

Big thanks to Kristin & Chris !

Rob Gri
Owner
Del Vinyl Entertainment

Visiting this location as a non musician, one cannot help but be impressed with the sound quality in the concert hall, the eye teasing architecture ( are we outside or inside), the beautiful Instruments on display on the first two floors and the statue of Franz Liszt welcoming you on the main floor.

No parking for visitors. No information regarding parking. If you ask the staff they will tell you nothing.

The RCM exminations give a very unethical service to people who cannot attend exams for medical reasons or other emergencies. They charge abusive fees that other music schools do not charge and they do not try to help the students. They are clearly trying to take advantage of people's misfortunes. If you are in Montreal, it is best to take your examinations at Vincent d'Indy, Verdun or other music schools, that are more human, ethical and respectful.

My piano teacher realised that my birth date is showing as born in 1969 on her account, while I was actually born more than two decades later than that. I m attending a piano exam today and I called them over the phone to fix it. Let alone the front desk person being rude, the way he asked me to fix it on my RCM account didn t work. He asked me to send them an email and wait for their response, which I already did before calling them. Most ridiculous thing was the front desk person even asked me I don t understand how a wrong birth date would affect your exam?! ....bruh.... Not professional, no common sense. Guess I have no choice but to attend my exam as a 50-year-old today, if I m allowed to.

1,000 seat Auditorium rises with wrap-around tiered seating (some seats are actually above & behind the stage performers! Light woodwork motif makes you feel like you're inside the hollows of a gigantic guitar!!

I registered for an online exam, and got my login info. I put into the exam website, and it wont let me log in. I tried calling a bunch of times, but they never pick up. Disappointing

Wish I could put 0 stars, absolutely horrible service, sent an email with no response for 13 days, and no phone response either.

I cannot recommend the RCoM as they focus far too much on classical music and reading sheet music. I've played in bands professionally for two decades and many of their students who have tried out cannot play by ear at all and are therefore useless in a professional band environment. I also find them harsh and insensitive regarding their refunds and business policies. I recommend finding a good private tutor.

We are really sad and disappointed with the treatment that the Royal Conservatory is giving us. They removed our 4-year-old daughter from the Start Smart program because it was supposedly a system error to enroll her. We do not know yet if it is a matter of racism or if they really believe that they have the right to treat children and their families in this way.

Loved it. A bit disappointed that most of the dinosaur bones were actually fake.

It's beautiful here! With lots of music history this is a unique place to see a performance , wonder and visit cafe, host events and potentially see suits stars from the boardroom they film there (OK maybe not likely!) Check out their website for more info..

"so much light!"

I got to help set up for a wedding here as I am entering the event management field. This venue was beautiful for a wedding.
It was on the third floor (the ceremony) and then moved down to the main floor for the reception. There is LOTS of bright light coming through and it is a really classy place. Love it!
The only thing is that if you wanted a dance floor you may not have much space. But it was great for the wedding of around 100 people. Wasn't too big!

As a parent booking several exams for the past several years: the website is convoluted and full of glitches, and if you call to get help, well, you won't get any.