Member Article

Industry Insight… WaterBear Students Secure Wealth of Opportunities

WaterBear, the College of Music with campuses in Brighton and Sheffield, is celebrating the wealth of unique performance and industry opportunities secured for students so far this academic year.

The dedicated Careers and Industry team at the landmark college has worked closely with WaterBear’s esteemed partner organisations to identify an abundance of invaluable opportunities for students to enhance their musical development, from work experience with promoters, to being an integral part of the tech team at a concert and playing their own gigs.

In Sheffield, one student successfully undertook a paid merchandise role for nationwide promoters Futuresound, a position which will lead to further opportunities. The same student is also gaining invaluable event management experience with one of the members of the college’s Careers and Industry team, Greg Archer (Student Experience Co-ordinator). Greg is an event promoter and manager, tour manager, artist manager and songwriter/guitarist, working from independent grassroots music venues to Live Nation.

Significantly, WaterBear Sheffield student rapper Kid Blu3, has been given a paid supporting slot at a gig by local Sheffield promoters Jarred Up, at the start of December.

In other key highlights, WaterBear has worked with the famed Sheffield music venue The Washington, to host a free-entry ‘Open Decks’ night featuring the college’s students. Students were involved in all areas of the event from organising, performing and DJing. Furthermore, showcasing their talents to the wider local community recently, several WaterBear Sheffield students were selected and paid to perform at a major festive event in the city.

In recent months in Brighton, students have been presented with the prime opportunity to shadow the sound and tech team at the famous venue Concorde 2, furthering their experience within the sound engineering side of the music industry. Other students from the college have received coveted membership to the Music Managers Forum (MMF), the world’s largest professional community of music managers.

Elsewhere in the Brighton campus, aspiring artists and musicians participated in a two-day event at Abbey Road Studios with masterclasses and panels hosted by the industry’s leading professionals. It was held in the iconic studios Two and Three, which were famously used to record hit albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Oasis, Adele and many more.

At the WaterBear venue in Brighton, students have many opportunities to grace the stage at regular jam nights and student-led events. More recently during WaterBear Live, four student bands, Lucretia Stokes, Tia Ice, Cimmerian, and Everyday Saints, spanning many genres including Indie, Soul, Folk and Metal were chosen to play. WaterBear also welcomed back alumni band, Signature Gold for a headline gig, and Student band Gobsmacked has been chosen to support WaterBear favourite ARXX for their headline gig this December.

Eve Massaad, Director of Marketing at WaterBear comments, “At WaterBear, we place great emphasis on a ‘learning-by-doing’ approach, and all of these events are focused on the development of our students’ skills, presenting them with various real-world opportunities to build their career portfolio. Our DIY ethos is ideal for aspiring musicians and artists looking to bolster their experience and develop invaluable industry connections.

“As a college, we are blessed to be based in cities with thriving music scenes, which are home to a huge variety of fantastic music venues. In Sheffield, we work with historic venues such as The Leadmill and Corporation, as well as the popular new venue Sidney&Matilda, allowing our students to perform at these venues, as well as go to soundchecks and gigs with various artists. In Brighton, WaterBear has its own venue, enabling students to book and run their own events, under the supervision of the college. The freedom the venue gives WaterBear students is crucial in giving them the all-important experience of the music industry, especially in regard to performance.”

The Careers and Industry team at WaterBear is made up of a wide array of music industry figures who come with extensive music industry experience from areas such as music management, A&R, live events and radio. Many are even working artists themselves.

WaterBear offers BA (Hons) degree and master’s courses made for today’s musicians, artists and industry professionals. The college has built an unrivalled reputation for its dedication to specialist one-to-one mentoring, focused class sizes, flexible course delivery and exclusive career development opportunities. WaterBear colleges are based in the heart of Brighton and Sheffield and also offer a range of online distance learning courses.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Melissa Chawner .