Professor Macfarren, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, speaking at a meeting in Manchester on Tuesday, stated that the committee of the Academy had under consideration a scheme for instituting branch schools in the chief centres of population throughout the country. These schools were intended to prepare pupils for the Royal Academy professoriate, and would be conducted under the supervision of the Academy committee, under the inspection of the Academy principal; and examinations would be held by special teachers in the several branches of study. When the pupils were sufficiently advanced it might be desirable to transplant them to the metropolis. The Academy was self-supporting; but it had recently expended £6000 in the erection of a concert-room, and at present it had no means at its disposal of further extending its operations outside its own doors.
Source: The Illustrated London News, July 8, 1882, p.42