Young RWCMD announces possible closure amid 'significant financial challenges’

The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) has said it is consulting on proposals to end some of its Young RWCMD activity amid ‘significant financial challenges’.

Young RWCMD Music, also referred to as Junior Conservatoire, offers a range of Saturday courses for learners aged 4–18. The programme currently involves 182 students.

The announcement
In addition to sector-wide funding issues, a statement from RWCMD said the current model of weekly term-time activity limits its ‘responsibility to offer vibrant experiences into professional training that reach young people from diverse backgrounds, not just from the Cardiff area but throughout Wales, and to embrace the Welsh language’.

Across music and drama, the proposals potentially affect five members of salaried staff and 112 staff working variable hours.

RWCMD’s statement said: ‘Our Young Acting and Young Music work needs a considerable subsidy from the College as we receive no direct funding for pre-College education from the Higher Education Funding Council Wales (now Commission for Tertiary Education and Research) or the Welsh Government. Continuing to subsidise Young RWCMD in this way isn’t sustainable given the serious financial pressures on us.’

The statement came in the wake of a viral post on X/Twitter from Andrew Morris, a classical music writer and blogger, which said: ‘The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama told its staff today that it is axing its junior department at the end of this term … A lot of the students are on bursaries to help cover the cost of lessons. The RWCMD decision only hastens the death of music education in Wales.’