We are still accepting applications for the BMus (Hons) Music (for the vocal, instrumental & composition pathways) and BMus (Hons) Jazz courses. Places are subject to availability. Please get in touch with our Admissions Team before submitting an application.
Work with industry-leading performers and vocal coaches to become the best singer you can be, while learning all the skills you need to thrive in the professional world.
Why study vocal at RWCMD?
- You’ll work closely in one-to-one lessons with distinguished singers and coaches who offer a broad selection of teaching styles.
- You’ll develop your other essential skills through study of language, music, movement, acting and stagecraft.
- You can take advantage of performance opportunities through the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales placement programme, Welsh National Opera Youth Opera Young Company and the student-led arts company REPCo programme.
- WNO is on our doorstep and students are invited to intend all company dress rehearsals.
- Our vocal training is informed by the most up-to-date professional standards, thanks to our close partnerships with individual artists and some of the UK’s leading opera companies such as Scottish opera, Opera North and the Royal Opera House.
- Masterclasses and workshops are an integral part of all courses. Recent and regular visitors include Susan Bullock, Joyce El-Khoury, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Gwyn Hughes-Jones, Malcolm Martineau, Carlo Rizzi and Simon Lepper.
- You can take advantage of the many opportunities to collaborate across the College departments, such as keyboard, choral conducting, historical performance, composition and contemporary music. Our opera productions also provide you with opportunities to work alongside our acclaimed production and design departments.
- Working with our Head of Movement Struan Leslie, among others, you’ll have sessions in movement for singers, focusing on physicality and performance skills.
- As a singer, developing fluency in language is particularly important and you’ll have weekly classes on the grammar and structure of each of the singing languages: Italian, German and French.
- You’ll develop essential collaborative working skills through ensemble projects such as children’s opera, musical theatre, devising your own opera scenes and voice and piano duo work.
Diverse range of career paths
Training as a singer develops many transferable skills which can lead to a diverse range of career paths.
RWCMD opera graduates can currently be seen with English National Opera (ENO), Welsh National Opera (WNO), Scottish Opera, Opera North, Glyndebourne, as well as with opera houses throughout Europe and North America.
Some have continued their studies at the National Opera Studio and Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House.
Led by performer and coach Mary King
Mary’s career has encompassed a wide range of roles, including that of performer, teacher, coach, broadcaster and writer. Mary is a popular and highly experienced mezzo soprano and has worked with leading conductors and numerous orchestras across the world.
She has made a particular feature of the contemporary classical repertoire.
Mary’s experience of leading organisations focused on the training of young singers. She has taught on the English National Opera’s Knack course, Southbank Centre’s Voicelab and the Glyndebourne Academy. Equally at home in Musical Theatre, she teaches in this discipline at the Royal Academy of Music, Arts Ed and is a vocal consultant for several West End shows.
She is also a regular broadcaster on both radio and television and she co-wrote The Singer’s Handbook, published by Faber.
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Find out more about RWCMD
- Our thriving, multicultural institution welcomes 800 students from more than 40 countries. You’ll train side-by-side with other instrumentalists, actors, singers, composers and performance designers and will work with them on projects throughout the year.
- Collaboration forms a huge part of what we do, allowing you to immerse yourself in new experiences with a broad range of disciplines and skills from across the college. Our unique student-led company REPCo, encourages students to work together to be bold, imaginative and entrepreneurial.
- Our industry partnerships provide real-world, enhanced learning experiences with leading arts organisations and professional musicians, also offering you opportunities to build your future professional networks.
- RWCMD is a vibrant arts centre staging 500 performances a year (many of which are free) which are a combination of world-leading artists and student work, often side by side. Regular major events at RWCMD include BBC Young Musician of the Year, and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and standalone events such as the World Harp Congress in July 2022.
- The College is the first UK conservatoire to achieve a gold standard level of quality assurance across Music, Drama and Under 18s in the recent international MusiQuE, Music Quality Enhancement review. Reviewers were particularly impressed with the College's approach to the individual student experience, multidisciplinary collaboration, and overall ambition, citing RWCMD as a shining example of best practice across European conservatoires, and reflecting the College's exceptional people and unique community.
- As the world’s only Steinway-exclusive conservatoire the College now has a world-leading fleet of pianos, and every acoustic piano at the College is a Steinway.
- We fundamentally believe in the power of music to transform and enrich society, developing skills in teaching, coaching and co-creating projects to create musicians of the future who will make an impact as performers, teachers and enablers within the broader community. Fundamental questions - ‘How can we shape the industry of the future’, ‘How can we use art to make a difference’ - help us to produce musicians who are truly relevant to a 21st Century world.
- You’ll practice, study and perform in a beautiful, inspiring setting, bordering Bute Park, one of the largest green spaces in the city. We have a chamber music hall with extraordinary acoustics, a glass-lined foyer and performance space, the Richard Burton Theatre, as well as state-of-the-art studios and rehearsal spaces.
- Our campus is right in the centre of Cardiff, the UK’s first Music City, and the thriving, compact capital of Wales, which is only two hours by train to central London.
- Cardiff was named as the most cost-effective city in the UK for students, according to the NatWest Student Living Index 2022.
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