Music is also played at the British court. Which instruments the Royal Family masters – and who became the butt of jokes.
The Windsors are famously huge fans of horses and sports. But musical education also plays a big role at the British court. Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) and her sister Margaret (1930-2002), for example, learned to play the piano. And the next generations also tried their hands at some instruments. Here’s who really sets the tone in the Royal Family:
King Charles III (75)
The current head of the royal family has long been a patron of the arts and holds patronages with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and the Royal College of Music. He himself learned to play the cello and participated in the orchestra at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied. “I loved playing in the Trinity orchestra – albeit badly,” Charles reminisced on BBC Radio 4’s podcast “The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed.”
“I remember playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and trying to practice with an old record conducted by Herbert von Karajan, who was the great conductor back in the sixties. There I was with my cello and tuning fork, and I put this thing on, and of course, he took it at an incredible tempo – you have no idea how fast!” He described himself as a “very poor member” of the cello group.
But the cello isn’t the only instrument Charles learned to play. As a child, he could also play melodies on the trumpet and piano. The future king was also seen as a conductor: During a trip in 2004, he visited the Royal College of Music and conducted the Elastic Band Orchestra. For his wife Camilla’s 60th birthday, he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, which he once described as “perhaps the most romantic music of all time.”
Prince William (42)
The heir to the throne also has musical talent. Even as a young child, he was seen in recordings tinkering at a piano with his brother. When William visited Goole High School in East Yorkshire in 2014, he revealed that as a child he played a variety of instruments. While chatting with members of the samba band, he declined an offer to play one of the drums.
The Prince of Wales told the school band, “When I was your age, I played piano, trumpet, and drums, but I couldn’t read music.” But he feels most confident on the bass guitar.
Princess Kate (42)
At the finale of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, William’s wife provided a real surprise: She played the piano in a short clip, sending a “royal welcome” to the European music competition. Two years earlier, she had already publicly demonstrated her piano skills for the first time – at the first Christmas concert she organized at Westminster Abbey. She performed a duet with Scottish singer-songwriter Tom Walker, 32, on that occasion.
