The Royal Conservatoire Big Band has been around for a long time. It was founded in the mid-1970s by students and teachers from the Conservatoire itself. The band's first permanent conductor was the jazz pianist and arranger Frans Elsen. The Royal Conservatoire's Jazz department, which was established in the middle of 1979, could be said to have its origins in the Big Band. Since the early 1990s, the band has been led by the American clarinettist and saxophonist John Ruocco. A measure of the Big Band's success is the fact that it has appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival more than twenty times.

This project is supported by students from the Art of Sound department.