Scholarships at Royal Academy of Music

This scholarship programme is offered to up to 12 students each year on the basis of merit and need. Candidates are considered automatically following the annual auditions, so no additional application is required.

The scholarship can include full tuition and maintenance fees. It also includes bespoke opportunities for career advancement and artistic development, ranging from a professional recording to enhanced personal tuition with globally renowned performers.

Beyond the musical opportunities, the programme invites scholars to become part of the Bicentenary network, encouraging international collaboration and support with artistic endeavours. There is an annual reunion, alternating between London and Italy, for all past and present scholars and students of the Bicentenary Scholarship Programme and the Mascarade Emerging Artists Programme. The network continues to support scholars and artists after graduation, as they shape their careers and begin to make their mark on the music industry.

Disney Theatrical Productions and the Royal Academy of Music are committed to encouraging greater ethnic and cultural diversity in the industry and to enabling outstandingly talented artists from underrepresented backgrounds to take advantage of the world-class training and opportunities the Academy has to offer. We are proud to work with Disney to offer this scholarship for Musical Theatre students.

Selection Criteria:

• Outstanding talent as determined through the usual audition process

• Priority will be given to candidates who are ethnically and culturally diverse, and are currently underrepresented in the musical theatre industry

• Potential to act as a role model to encourage students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds who aspire to careers in musical theatre

Entrance scholarships (for degree and diploma students) are awarded on the basis of merit following your audition assessment (either by live audition or by video recording). Composers are assessed for scholarships on the basis of their second-round interview. There is no separate application process for scholarships.

Scholarships range from small awards to full fees. Most awards are to help with tuition fees, although undergraduate scholarships for UK students, and EU students eligible for UK student finance, are administered as maintenance awards for living costs.

Gap Year and Organ Foundation students are not eligible for Academy scholarship support.

If your course is longer than one year, the scholarship award will be reviewed each year and will depend on your satisfactory progression and engagement with the course.

The Hans Keller Scholarship is awarded annually to an exceptionally gifted postgraduate student in the Department of Strings. Awardees may be of any nationality.

There is no separate application process: the Academy selects nominees for the Hans Keller Scholarship during normal auditioning procedures.

The scholarship is funded by the Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust, in memory of the musician and writer Hans Keller (1919-1985), who was a dominant force in British musical life for forty years after the second world war.