Royal Academy of Music launches fully funded Foundation Year
The Royal Academy of Music has announced what it describes as the first fully funded Foundation Year course at a UK music conservatoire, marking a significant new step in its widening participation work.
Supported by the Clore Duffield Foundation, which has funded the set-up of the course and its first three years of delivery, the programme will welcome its first cohort in July 2026. Applications are now open.
The new Foundation Year is designed to support talented young musicians aged 18 to 20 who have faced financial or other barriers to advanced musical training. The Academy said it will focus recruitment on state-educated applicants, with at least 50% of students expected to come from outside London.
Each year, five students will take part in an intensive programme including one-to-one tuition, ensemble training, mentoring and academic support. The main aim is to prepare students for undergraduate applications and auditions at conservatoires and universities. The course will be led by Carla Rees, Professor of Low Flutes and Contemporary Flute at the Academy.
All students on the Foundation Year will receive a bursary to help cover living costs, while free accommodation will be available in University of London halls of residence. Financial support will also be offered to those who need to buy musical instruments.
Academy Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood said, ‘The Academy has been growing its widening participation work with increasing energy, investment and output in the last decade. A focused Foundation Year gives us the chance to do what we always dreamt: to identify talented and committed young musicians for whom a shortage of access to teaching and opportunity has left them on the cusp of what is needed for pre-professional programmes... This course offers us a chance of bridging the gap for those who desperately need and deserve it.’
Dame Vivien Duffield, Chairman of the Clore Duffield Foundation, said, ‘The Foundation Year will give talented young musicians conservatoire-level specialist training and resource, which many have not had the opportunity to access. This programme will give time, space and expert guidance to bridge that gap and to fully realise potential.’
Applications are open across all principal studies taught at undergraduate level at the Royal Academy of Music. The deadline is Friday 8 May 2026.