Welcome to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Jazz Department!
Many congratulations on securing your place here and we cannot wait for you to begin your studies. As the national conservatoire for Wales, we place the utmost importance on performance training. Therefore, your 30 hours of one-to-one lessons and your regular group classes in improvisation and performance will take prominence. There will also be a host of supportive studies too, in order to widen your educational approach.
For BMus jazz students, topics such as ear training, session musician skills, lectures on Music & Society and the wider cultural impact of jazz music, Composition and Arranging, and music workshop skills are there to supplement your undergraduate studies.
And for MA jazz students, topics such as Professional Jazz Musician, Jazz Performance as Research, and Techniques in Jazz Harmony and Arranging are there to further supplement your graduate studies.
Key to the above is who you will be studying with. To make this easier, we have included website information for our jazz staff below, alongside a video link so you can get to know their excellent playing ahead of your study here. You can also find information via the website.
Extracurricular performance is also ultra important to us here at RWCMD Jazz. In addition to regular visits from external jazz guests as they perform here at one of our world-class venues and give you bespoke masterclasses, our weekly Amser Jazz Time performances on Fridays are a particular highlight. Student-run and featuring two bands each week in our beautiful foyer space, the performances are regularly sold out, as well as being live streamed. You can check out some past performances via our RWCMD YouTube channel.
There is also a thriving jazz scene in Cardiff with regular jazz twice weekly at the Flute and Tankard. In addition to this, there are many performance opportunities that will become available to you as you get to know the scene.
Our Amser Jazz Time Festival (6-9 June 2024) is also a particular highlight featuring a combination of professional concerts, alongside student end-of-year performances, the RWCMD Big Band, and community events with some key educational partners.
And our Jazz Open Day will be featured amongst this programme on Friday 7 June 2024, and we hope you can attend to hear from myself, some jazz students, and to listen to various performances.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me on andrew.bain@rwcmd.ac.uk. We look forward to your arrival!
Best,
Andrew Bain | Head of Department- Jazz