The Programme

General programme information may be found at Boston University International Programs.

Note: Students will have the opportunity to request individual instructors, but please note that the final decision of allocations rests with the Royal College of Music.

Library

Students have full access to the RCM library during RCM term time. The RCM Library has extensive selections of sheet music and offers reference, loan, and listening services.

Rehearsal Space

Our students are given access to the rehearsal facilities at the Royal College of Music in the early mornings and in the evenings. Boston University also arranges additional rehearsal space in the Crofton Student Residence for student use.

Student Experience

"This was the greatest semester of my college career so far. I didn't plan to do the RCM program to broaden myself musically, but rather for the broad abroad experience. In that vein, I got so much more than I ever thought possible from living in a foreign country." Anon., Fall 2009

"All the classes were great. We came to experience something different, and in that respect, the classes themselves were dynamic and interesting." Anon., Fall 2009

"Hatchlands was great! It was a treat to...see the beautiful grounds, and really amazing to play Chopin's piano. The concert at Royal Albert Hall was fantastic - what an opportunity to hear the Vienna Philharmonic!" Anon., Fall 2007

"After London, I felt that I came home a musician." Anon., Fall 2006

"I was able to sing 'O Holy Night' at a carol service at Kew Gardens in front of thousands of people, and that to me was the most memorable experience I had." Anon., Fall 2006

A Day in the Life...

John Bartnicki, BU-RCM Fall 2005
"The Boston University College of Fine Arts/Royal College of Music exchange program has been an unforgettable experience and one that I will cherish for the rest of my life. A typical day at both schools obviously focuses on music and music making. But that is where the similarities end; the two schools could not be any more different from each other. For starters, the Crofton (where all BU-RCM students are housed) is located easily within two hundred yards of the Royal College of Music. This makes waking up five minutes before class a possibility, not that I would actually do that of course :-). The Crofton is a converted hotel that BU purchased a few years ago and is located in the heart of South Kensington just a couple hundred yards south of London's famous Hyde Park; not much detail is needed other than the fact that this building and its location is without a doubt one of the best parts of the experience.
The classes I took this semester at RCM were Music History, Music Theory, and Psychology of Performance. However, vocal majors in this program do have to take a few more classes; they include Acting for Singers, French Diction, and English Diction. Each of all these classes meets for one hour a week as opposed to the typical three hours a week you would expect to get at BU. That may seem pretty light at first glance; however the hours of information that are not covered in class are expected to be learned outside of class. The reason why class time at RCM is so light is one of the main differences between the School of Music at BU and RCM.
The reason is that RCM chooses to focus the student's time on rehearsal and practice time whereas BU opts to focus more time on academics. This makes sense considering the fact that RCM is a conservatory and BU is a major academic university. For example, at RCM, a concert cycle is spread over a period lasting anywhere between two weeks and a few days. This is a major deviation from the school of music where concert cycles typically last for about a month or more. As much time goes into rehearsals at RCM, the time is merely compacted; instead of nine or so hours a week of rehearsal for a month, RCM has six hours a day for two weeks. This in turn also gives you a lot of free time to practice when you are not in a currently rehearsing concert cycle.
The facilities at RCM are incredibly different from BU CFA; the RCM is housed in a five story brick Victorian building directly across the street from London's famous Royal Albert Hall, one of the premiere performance venues in the world. RCM houses rooms for recitals and rehearsals, practice room, an opera theatre, and a concert hall, a dining hall, and even a pub. All in all, coming from CFA, I can say that RCM is amazing as far as the facilities are concerned. One unfortunate difference however is that RCM is rather limited in the number of practice rooms in comparison to CFA; in order to get a room you generally need to sign a room out the day before or be lucky enough to find an empty one during an off hour.
The social life at RCM is a lot different from CFA as well in that most of the students live far away from the college so that requires that they spend their whole day on campus often spending time in the pub or the dining hall in their free time. As a result, the students spend a lot of time hanging out together in the college. However, the students here also seem more independent than American students. Another thing about this program is that because the BU students live so close to RCM, they tend to spend more time at the Crofton than at the College, this in turn causes the BU students to generally spend less time with RCM students and more time with other BU students.
One of the most frustrating differences between RCM and BU CFA is the lack of full time faculty at RCM. Students here must schedule their lessons each week with their teacher depending on when the teacher will be at the College. This may seem like no big deal at first but it becomes a big deal when you can easily go a month without having a lesson due to conflicting schedules. If you watch out for this though from the beginning, it should not be too much of an issue. Basically, you get out of this program what you put in. If you fail to schedule a lesson, you will not have one, nobody is going to chase you down and schedule it like most teachers at CFA will. Nobody is going to force you to do the outside reading for music history, and nobody is going to force you to go to class. If you do not put any effort into this semester, you will not get anything out of it more than a four month long vacation. The biggest difference between RCM and BU teachers and furthermore English teachers and American teachers is that the English teachers take a more laid back approach and want to help you but they are not going to make you do anything; if you're not willing to put anything into your studies here you will not get anything out of them. This can be possibly the best experience of your life up until now, London is a spectacular city and RCM is a superb school, but to get anything out of your experience here you need to be willing to put the effort in."

Staff Contact

If you have any queries about the CFA Music Programme at the Royal College of Music please contact Sarah Farrow.

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