Open Academy
Head of Open Academy:
Julian West BA, PGCE
Open Academy Administrator & Projects Manager:
Cate Dennes BA, PGCE
Telephone 020 7873 7442
Email openacademy@ram.ac.uk
Open Academy combines a series of creative projects which challenge preconceptions of what music conservatoires do.
The Academy’s mission has always been to provide musical training at the highest level. Open Academy extends this opportunity beyond enrolled students and out into the fullest range of society. Academy students also benefit directly by engaging in innovative creative learning and participation projects, and discovering an application of their skills beyond the traditional concert platform.
‘I didn’t think I liked classical music but that concert was wonderful’
Open Academy participant’s comment
Widening participation initiatives are now part and parcel of the work carried out by all UK orchestras, opera companies, festivals and concert venues. Indeed they are intrinsic to the very identity of many organisations, often with principal players and leading artists shaping and guiding the programmes of work. Skills and experience in working in this field are highly valued by employers.
A young, relatively unknown ensemble who are able to approach a festival with a good biography, an exciting evening programme, and an afternoon workshop to engage with a wider audience, are much more likely to get the gig. Similarly, composers, singers and jazz musicians are finding increasing amounts of their work, and career satisfaction, in engaging with people creatively, away from the concert platform.
All undergraduates are given the opportunity to participate in Music in Community projects, and to gain experience in creative leadership. Working as an intern with an experienced leader and partner organisation, students devise and deliver professional education projects whilst receiving training ‘on the job’. Sessions with top workshop leaders, performers, composers and teachers cover such topics as collaborative composition, improvisation, project planning, performing for new audiences and evaluation. Project partners include Wigmore Hall, Spitalfields Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Touring Opera, Glyndebourne Opera and Kings Place. Projects often take the opportunity to draw on the skills of the many eminent musicians who visit to the Academy, including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Undergraduates can spend more time exploring the diverse skills needed to become a skilled workshop musician by taking a specialist, hands-on ‘Advanced Music in Community’ option in their fourth year. Postgraduates can explore work in this field as part of their professional portfolio.
