The Royal College of Music is a world-leader in career development for musicians. We emphasise the need for students to be confident and versatile communicators, not just in their professional engagements, but in everything they do.
The RCM’s renowned Creative Careers Centre provides an unparalleled service. Recognised internationally for our innovative approach to supporting young musicians, we offer resources and guidance, bespoke career advice, workshops and presentations by industry specialists, plus a broad range of professional opportunities, including performances and teaching work. For many students, the Creative Careers Centre helps pave the way to a successful lifelong career in music.
Our dedicated team partners with leading consultants, reputable arts organisations and local communities, delivering unique career-building opportunities and a direct route to the music industry. We enable musicians to discover their professional identity, gain hands-on experience and new skills, develop an entrepreneurial mind-set and build a fulfilling professional portfolio.
You can use these services from day one of your course to develop an outstanding CV and wealth of experience, which will help shape your future career. The resources of the Creative Careers Centre are available to all alumni for up to five years after graduation.
Tailored career support
The resources offered by the Creative Careers Centre are comprehensive and varied. We provide a range of reference materials and tailored one-to-one sessions. Importantly, we understand that successful musicians today need good business skills to reinforce their artistic talents.
Each week the Creative Careers Centre produces a tailored bulletin of opportunities and jobs, collating information from a range of sources. Students and alumni regularly find work through these bulletins and clients often ask to be included, knowing they are targeting a talented and experienced pool of musicians.
The Creative Careers Centre offers valuable guidance on CV and biography writing, funding applications, programming, and how to communicate effectively with audiences and clients. We can also advise students on how to develop repertoire, build audiences and develop a business idea.
We actively encourage students to be entrepreneurial, supplying expert advice on project management, marketing and publicity, online promotion, funding, artist management, diary services and tax.
RCM Accelerate
RCM Accelerate supports graduating RCM students to kick-start a new creative project, social enterprise, or business idea; or to take an existing initiative to the next level. Successful applicants receive grant funding and mentoring support. The scheme promotes proactivity, creativity, and an entrepreneurial mind-set.
Current graduates on the scheme include:
- Hannah Gillingham: has formed a contemporary ensemble with a core aim of making new music more accessible.
- Liam Dougherty: has developed a project that recycles and transforms old pianos to feature as an electronic sound installation at festivals and events.
- Bekki Lycett: has created a cross-arts initiative with a focus on access and participation. They commission themed compositions and present them as part of family friendly workshops in partnership with art galleries and museums.
- Helen Kuby: has established a health and wellbeing education programme for young musicians who wouldn't ordinarily have access to such valuable support.
- Alison Wormell: their new film collective Play Outdoors Productions aims to promote underrepresented voices in the arts music and the outdoors
- Pietro Genova Gaia: he is bringing together a community of musicians and artists in North London at the Netherall House Auditorium
- Magdalenna Krstevska & Sophie Glenny: their new group The Corelia Project aims to bring to life incredible chamber music by women
- Bertille Mas: Ensemble Astrolabe researches forgotten composers and historically informed performances.
Following registration, students wishing to find out more about RCM Accelerate can visit the Creative Careers Centre pages on Learn.rcm.
Professional Engagements Service
Thanks to the Creative Careers Centre, RCM musicians are hired by organisations and members of the public to perform at events or to work as freelance orchestral and session players, as accompanists and repetiteurs, as composers and as chorus members. Fees and contracts for such work are kept in line with industry standards.
Through our Professional Engagements Service, RCM musicians have played at some of London’s most prestigious venues and landmarks.
Concert opportunities
The Creative Careers Centre offers concerts and individual projects throughout the year, which provide vital performance and programming experience, plus the opportunity for RCM students to raise their profile.
We promote opportunities to perform at a variety of venues, including concert halls, churches, abbeys, museums, galleries and community settings.
RCM Teaching Service
An essential part of many musicians’ careers, teaching is widely valued as a creative and worthwhile way to share your musical passion and expertise with a new generation.
The Creative Careers Centre runs a popular teaching service, matching members of the public in London and across the globe with student-tutors — whose qualifications and visa-status enable them to teach.
If you have the skills, commitment and experience you can be considered for teaching opportunities as they arise.
International students on Student Visas
The UK Government sets restrictions on the amount and type of work that students on Student Visas can undertake during their studies. Any performance work must be organised by the RCM and considered an integral and assessed part of a student’s studies in order to be compliant with the terms of Student Visas.
The Creative Careers Centre is very experienced at helping international students manage their workload in order to make the most of available opportunities. We will help you find the widest possible range of career strengthening experiences, both with the RCM and further afield.
