Music and Performing Arts

The Centre for Music and Performing Arts is going through an exciting period of rapid growth and development. We have expanded from 400 full time students in 2006 to 540 in 2008 and anticipate reaching 600 in 2009. The new dance studios, music technology studio and music practical rooms have been opened and we look forward to further new facilities including a drama studio, recording studios, specialist classrooms, music practical rooms and a 200 seat theatre in Phase Two of our current building project. We have very close links with the arts industry through The Mercury Theatre, the Colchester Arts Centre and The Headgate Theatre as well as many artists and performers. We are also a lead partner in the Essex Music Agency and the Arts Council England funded Escalator Futures: Music project. More important than all of this though, is our large staff of experienced practitioners who continue to perform, compose, direct and choreograph as well as being excellent educators.

The creative and cultural industries form a significant part of the regional and national economy. Careers in music and performing arts range from the performer and educator through to the composer, director, choreographer, arts administrator and stage manager. The Centre for Music and Performing Arts has been successfully providing the building blocks for careers in this industry for well over 30 years. Some of our graduates, such as the opera singer Deborah Norman and composer Tansy Davies, are very well known. Others are music teachers in schools, colleges and through instrumental services such as the Essex Music Services. Many graduates are working in bands, for example Fuzz Face, Rosalita, The Kevin Pearce Band, Hokey Joint, Blacktop Harrison and Carved From Violence, with regional and national profiles. Our musical theatre graduates have gone on to a variety of careers as well as postgraduate study at some of the most prestigious schools in London.

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 Centre and outside at local and regional venues. If you are serious about a career in music (classical, jazz or popular) or performing arts (musical theatre, dance, acting or technical theatre) we believe that we have the right courses, facilities and staff to help you to realise that ambition.