When the Royal Academy of Music opened its doors to its first 20 students in 1823, there were equal numbers of boys and girls. In this first episode, Anna Picard traces the stories of some of the women of the Academy including Fanny Dickens, the elder sister of Charles Dickens. We also hear from the participants of a pioneering women-only conducting course and try to unravel what playing in a gendered way might mean. Along the way there is, as always, some glorious music from Academy students.

Presenter: Anna Picard

Producer: Natalie Steed

Contributors: Kathryn Adamson, Briony Cox-Williams, Phyllis Weliver, Jonathan Freeman- Attwood, Hannah Stell, Elizabeth Kenny, Lucy Powell, Sian Edwards, Peggy Wu, Beth Fitzpatrick

Voice of Frederick Corder: Michael Bertenshaw

Executive Producers, Royal Academy of Music: George Chambers, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Safi Schlicht

All the music in this episode is performed by Royal Academy of Music students:

Mozart Serenade in B flat, K 361, ‘Gran Partita’, performed by Royal Academy of Music Symphonic Wind

Haydn String Quartet in G, Op 77 No 1 (second movement), performed by the Echea Quartet

Ferdinand David Trombone Concertino, Op 4, performed by Hannah Stell

Tchaikovsky The Queen of Spades, Op 68, performed by Hannah Stell

Wagner Ride of the Valkyries performed by Hannah Stell

Rebecca Clarke Ave Maria performed by Milette Gillow and Ivy Liang

Rebecca Clarke The Cloths of Heaven performed by Lauren Macleod and Stella Marie Lorenz

Schubert Symphony No 4 in C minor, D 417, 'Tragic', performed by the Academy Chamber Orchestra with Lorenza Borrani

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