Music Education
Music has the power to transform lives, communities, and futures.
At the RNCM, Music Education is about understanding how people learn, engage with, and experience music, while developing the knowledge and practical skills to make a difference through teaching, leadership, and creative practice.
Whether you’re preparing for a career in the classroom, community settings, higher education, or the wider education and arts and culture sectors, you’ll explore contemporary approaches to music learning, work with diverse groups of learners, and examine the role of music in society. Through a combination of academic study, professional practice, and real-world experience, you’ll develop the confidence to shape the future of music education and inspire the next generation of musicians.
Key Information
- Our undergraduate and postgraduate music education programmes do not offer a principal study option.
Courses
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Graduate
Master of Education
Professors and Lecturers
Students are taught by a team of expert academics, researchers, and practitioners.
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Jennie Henley
Director of Programmes
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Nicholas Reyland
Professor of Music and Head of Undergraduate Programmes
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David Horne
Professor in Composition and Head of Graduate School
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Robert Gardiner
Senior Lecturer in Music Education and Programme Lead Music Education (PGCE)
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Annika Forkert
Senior Lecturer in Music and Deputy Head of Undergraduate Studies
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Simon Clarke
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Music and Deputy Head of Graduate School
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Simon Parkin
Senior Lecturer in Music and Deputy Head of Undergraduate Programmes
Opportunities
Real-World Experience
Apply your learning through practical projects, workshops, and professional placements, working with schools, community groups and arts organisations. Build valuable experience while developing your own teaching and leadership style.
Inspire the Next Generation
Develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to engage learners of all ages and backgrounds through music. Explore how musical participation can support creativity, wellbeing, inclusion, and lifelong learning.
Shape Your Career
Academic Studies helps students become more insightful performers, composers, and educators. Through areas such as analysis, music history, harmony, aesthetics, and cultural studies, students gain a richer understanding of repertoire, styles, and artistic contexts.
News
RNCM secures major investment to support emerging artists and break down barriers to music careers
15 October 2026
The new funding builds on RNCM’s award-winning track record for nurturing entrepreneurial and early career talent, and ‘recognises excellence exists in every community, but opportunity does not’. The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has secured significant…
RNCM reveals first artists on joint Creative Incubator with English National Opera
7 October 2026
The RNCM has announced the inaugural artists on its new RNCM/ENO Creative Incubator programme – a unique partnership jointly developed with the English National Opera (ENO) to provide space and…
News In Brief
- Congratulations to alumnus and SWBP professor, David Thornton, on receiving the Iles Medal at the National Brass Band Championships.
- Congratulations to vocal alumnus Rafael Rojas, who won three prizes at the Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition.
- Alumnus Graham McCusker has worked as music director, pianist, and composer on the new Sense and Sensibility film