ARC (Artists of the Royal Conservatory) is the institution's ensemble-in-residence and is made up of Glenn Gould School faculty and graduates. It is an international ambassador for the Conservatory and promotes it through concerts in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia, and through its acclaimed recordings for Sony Masterworks (on the RCA Red Seal label). It collaborates with a range of artists, most recently with the pianist Leon Fleisher, the novelist Yann Martel, actors Saul Rubinek and R.H. Thompson, and composers Omar Daniel and Vincent Ho.

The ensemble plays a leading role in unearthing repertoire that has been ignored due to political changes or shifts in musical fashion - in particularly works that were lost because of the upheavals of the Second World War. ARC has received accolades from most of the world’s major music journals and magazines. Julian Haylock in The Strad (June 2008) writes of ARC's most recent recording: “Music of this quality cries out for exemplary musicianship and the ARC Ensemble sets the skin rippling at every turn with its ear-tingling corporate intonation and magical phrasing, caught to perfection by award-winning producer David Frost.”

Both of ARC's two CDs, On the Threshold of Hope and Right Through the Bone, have been nominated for Grammy Awards in the category of Best Chamber Music Recording. They are regularly played on networks around the world, and ARC's concerts have been broadcast on National Public Radio in the U.S., and on public radio in Europe, Poland and Hungary.

ARC has become one of Canada’s leading cultural exports, raising international awareness of the Glenn Gould School's superb faculty and Canada's rich musical life. The Ensemble’s concerts are meticulously researched and assembled with rich supporting materials and are often augmented with lectures on the life and context of the composers, or included as part of larger themed festivals. Its acclaimed series Music in Exile, which explores the music of composers whose lives and careers were changed forever by the Holocaust and World War II, has been presented with huge critical success in New York, London, Budapest, and Toronto, and has led to concerts at the Kennedy Centre in Washington and performances in Rome, Sweden and Poland.

James Conlon, Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera and the Ravinia Festival, and a major force in the resuscitation of lost twentieth century repertoire recently agreed to become ARC's Honorary Chairman. The ensemble's Artistic Director is the guitarist Simon Wynberg.

ARC nominated for prestigious Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Ensemble. Read more
ARC praised in The New York Times and The Washington Post