Living up to the maxim ‘The Land of Song’, Wales offers singers a truly diverse and vibrant experience in preparation for professional life, while encompassing an international perspective at all levels. Close collaborations with individual artists and some of the UK’s leading companies including Welsh National Opera and Music Theatre Wales, ensure that the training is informed by the most up to date professional practice. Combined with world-class training and performing facilities and located in the heart of a lively capital city, the Royal Welsh College is well placed to help singers develop all the skills necessary for a successful career in the 21st Century.

All students work closely with the Head of Department, Angela Livingstone and in individual lessons with dedicated members of the teaching staff, made up of distinguished performers and coaches, each of whom bring a sound knowledge of industry practice, linking your training with current professional practice. Masterclasses and workshops are also an integral part of all courses with recent and regular visitors including Susan Bullock, Natalie Dessay, Gwyn Hughes-Jones, Malcolm Martineau, Rebecca Evans, Judith Howarth, Carlo Rizzi, Simon Lepper and Joseph Middleton. John Fisher, is the College’s Jane Hodge Foundation International Chair in Opera.

Recent graduates have secured principal work with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera and Glyndebourne, as well as continuing their studies at the National Opera Studio and on the Jette Parker programme at the Royal Opera House.

Departmental staff work hard to provide a caring, collaborative environment with a high level of individual support. One-to-one lessons focus on the development of a secure technique while weekly performance classes provide opportunities for students to sing in front of their peers in preparation for a busy schedule of public recitals and external concerts. Professional skills are honed through additional coaching in language, music, movement, acting and stagecraft.

We actively encourage vocalists to form working relationships with students from other departments including Keyboard, Choral Conducting and Contemporary Music, and opera productions provide opportunities to work alongside the College’s acclaimed Production and Design departments.

The College also hosts the National Opera Studio in its annual residency with Welsh National Opera, as well as the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize, which provides opera students with opportunities to perform in public masterclasses with the jurors of this most prestigious of international competitions.

Further performance opportunities are open to students through the BBC National Chorus of Wales placement programme, the College’s Hire a Performer programme, and the student-led opera company Opera’r Ddraig.