Music and Theatre - your questions answered! video transcript

My name is John Crossley, I’m Head of Discipline for Music and Performing Arts And in that area we have a Theatre programme and two Music programmes For those students interested in Theatre Arts, it could be that they’re interested in working on stage It could be script writing it could be producing, directing, or working in other aspects of the theatre. So there’s lots of opportunities there. In terms of the Music programmes, for the Performance course, it might be performance, it might be composition, working in the music business generally or teaching, for example. And in the Music Production course, it tends to be working, for example, in the studio, producing artists, bands and so on, or working sound to picture. Or other aspects of sound and audio recording. I think the key benefits for studying on these programmes are the facilities, which are fantastic. We have excellent studio and rehearsal facilities and equipment and so on, so the students get every opportunity to work with state of the art equipment, and develop their skills. The University owns Derby Theatre, which is a professional producing theatre, which means that we have productions both in-house and also touring productions that come and are staged there. And so the students get plenty of opportunities to meet, mingle and work with the professionals.

From the moment you step foot in the University, from the very first day, you are in the industry and you're developing those skills and working with those people that are going to be important to you as you progress in your career. All our staff are professionals who are still working in the industry and so, they're able to bring that professional experience and expertise to the programmes and to the sessions with the students. In terms of placements and volunteering, there's lots of different opportunities, in the theatre, because it is a working producing theatre, there's all sorts of opportunities there whether it be, working on productions, working back stage, or working with the admin team. On the music side of things, we have very strong links with local music organisations, venues, recording studios and so on. We also have links with national organisations and we do have students who've had placements for record labels, or working with live touring bands and so on.

One thing we take very seriously at the University of Derby is 'what comes next?' In other words, your career. And all of our programmes are designed to help you make that transition from University life, into the world of work. We have master classes where experts and professionals come in and give talks to you and there's a great opportunity then to to network with professionals There's opportunities for working with outside organisations, which could lead to work opportunities and so on. so it's a big, important part of what we do is thinking about careers.

Music and Theatre - your questions answered! video

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