We know how competitive the music business is for our graduates. That's why the focus of the Artist Development provision is to empower you – the next generation of professional musicians – to make the most of your individual skills when you leave.
With specialisms and contacts across the music world, our team has the expertise to ensure that you leave here as fully rounded, creative and adaptable musicians, with the tools to gain employment even in unpredictable times.
Seminars, workshops and courses
Our sessions and courses are designed to develop your core artist skills, self-knowledge and professional awareness. They cover a comprehensive range of practical subjects, including preparing professional documents, auditioning well, how to get funding, working with online content, self-employed finances, how to get teaching work and how to practise effectively.
We consider your creative and career options, with talks and workshops on effective concert programming, orchestral life, working with promoters, making audition self-tapes, and producing and creating your own projects.
It is important that we give you a broad range of experiences to draw on, because you never know what direction your music-making might take you.
With this in mind, as well as our workshops and courses, there are ongoing one-off sessions throughout the year, honing in on more specialised areas, such as how to live and work in EU countries, West End work, creating and editing audio and video, improvising, and writing for video games, TV and film. Our events and talks are run by the team, by other Academy specialists, and by invited experts from all fields of music, including established solo artists, orchestral fixers, musicians who have started their own companies, agents and festival directors. Many of these speakers are Academy Alumni, particularly in a series of rolling talks called Ask the Artist and Alumni Stories.
We also have a growing list of industry partners, with whom we collaborate on creative schemes every year.
Students Create Festival
Artist Development also runs the Students Create Festival every year. This is the chance for students to make and publicly perform works across genres, with an expert mentor assigned to each project.
Artist Development Team
We’re here to give one-to-one career guidance.
Our team has specialisms in orchestral life, chamber music, opera, new music, interdisciplinary work, producing and fundraising, so there is almost nothing we can’t help you with. During the undergraduate programme we ask you to attend a meeting with one of us to assess and discuss your creative and career development.
By the end of your time at the Academy, you should feel confident to make bold artistic choices, and to make your career in music whatever you want it to be.