RNCM Young Artists Shortlisted for Times Higher Education Award

A Royal Northern College of Music initiative that addresses inequity and under-provision in the music education sector has been shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award.

RNCM Young Artists, a key strand of the conservatoire’s award-winning learning and participation programme with under-18s (RNCM Engage) and closely aligned with the RNCM’s Popular Music school, has been selected by the judges in the Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year category.

The prestigious category celebrates programmes that improve equality of opportunity for students from all backgrounds and includes progressive initiatives from five other national universities. The THE Awards 2024 winners will be announced at a special black tie ceremony in Birmingham on Thu 28 Nov.

RNCM Young Artists is an imaginative and ground-breaking training and support programme for aspiring young pop musicians aged 11-18 from Greater Manchester, lead by Head of Young Artists Tosin Akindele. Since 2022, Young Artists has provided opportunities for 92 young people in under-served communities to improve education, skills, and life chances, and opened up viable pathways to Higher Education. Following the project’s inaugural year, two young people successfully gained places on RNCM’s BMus Popular Music undergraduate degree course.

At least 50 per cent of Young Artists places are free, and the RNCM aims to remove all barriers to participation, creating additional bursaries for travel and food provision. The project has also extended RNCM’s reach to new areas of activity and audiences, encouraging young people from non-traditional backgrounds to enter Higher Education and new audiences to engage with cultural activities in a conservatoire setting.

To view the full shortlist, visit https://www.the-awards.co.uk/2024/en/page/shortlist

A recent article in Wonkhe written by RNCM Principal Linda Merrick CBE further addressed the vital work of conservatoires in addressing access to music education, and is available to read here.

Young Artists is supported by Sony Music’s UK Social Justice Fund.