Music and Performing Arts
Click here for Open Event Talks and Tours in January!
The Centre for Music and Performing Arts encompasses a wide range of courses covering classical music, popular music and jazz, acting, dance technical theatre, musical theatre and media. We have been successfully providing the building blocks for careers in the arts for over 35 years. Recently we have been going through an exciting period of rapid growth and development, having expanded from 400 full-time students in 2006 to more than 900 in 2012. Our centre now includes the media department with courses in contemporary film making and editing, we run an apprenticeship programme in music and technical theatre and you can study with us at our campuses in Colchester, Braintree, Clacton and Dovercourt.
Performance is at the heart of the Centre; each year we host a wide range of workshops and performances from visiting artists of national and international renown. Our students have many opportunities to perform in our own spaces and outside at local and regional venues including the Mercury Theatre, Colchester Arts Centre, The Twist, Headgate Theatre, Lakeside Theatre and many clubs and pubs.
Our CMPA Live! website details this year's exciting performance schedule of concerts, gigs, dance shows and productions featuring professional musicians, famous faces and talented students. You can see full details of the event series and book online. You can also "like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and see and hear us on our YouTube channel.
The creative and cultural industries form a significant part of the regional and national economy. Careers in the arts and media industries range from the performer and educator through to the composer, director, choreographer, arts administrator, stage manager, designer, film editor and camera, lighting or sound operators. Some of our music graduates, such as the opera singer Deborah Norman, composer Dr. Tansy Davies and video-game composer Richard Jacques are very well known. Others are hardworking teachers in schools, colleges and through providers such as Essex Music Services. Our performing artists and media students are finding work in theatre, film and television and recent graduates have been employed as performers on cruise ships and at Disneyland Paris or undertake post-graduate courses to develop their skills.
