Tag: London College of Contemporary Media

LCCM lecturers and students have been in a rich vein of form recently with awards including a FHEA (Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy), a Tutor of the Year winner at the UK Music’s OMG Awards and Best Female at the Premier Gospel Awards.

Patrick ‘Pat’ Cotton, Programme Leader of BMus Music and Performance at London College of Contemporary Music (LCCM), who taught BRITS winner Tom Walker, won MAP Tutor of the Year at UK Music’s OMG Awards in Liverpool while also achieving his FHEA – Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

“I am delighted with both the Tutor of the year Award and the FHEA fellowship. The latter is similar to a PGCE teaching qualification for primary and secondary teachers, but for university lecturers,” says Patrick. “The FHEA is an advanced HE teaching qualification which allows you to reflect on areas in your teaching and identify areas for professional and pedagogical development. There are different levels and the level I undertook was Fellow.”

Elsewhere, Blessing Annatoria Chitapa, BA Muic Business Management student at LCCM won Best Female at the Premier Gospel Awards. Launched in 2016, the Premier Gospel Awards event showcases the range of genres making up gospel music, featuring performances by leading artists. Past performers have included Guvna B, Anita Wilson, Faith Child, Called Out Music, Becca Folkes and Samm Henshaw. Blessing has previous success – having won The Voice UK in 2020 before commencing her studies at LCCM.

“We’re very proud of Annatoria’s continued success. Since triumphing in The Voice UK she hasn’t looked back. We were honoured when she chose LCCM alongside her major record deal as the ideal environment in which to develop her music skills even further. Her recent victory at the Premier Gospel Awards is well-earned. It’s great to see a young female artist building her career on her own terms” said JD Donovan, LCCM Creative Industry Liaison.”

Elsewhere, there was an OMG special mention for LCCM’s Sahil Batra and a nominee for Kathleen Frances.

Higher education music college LCCM has announced a string of high-profile industry guests and organisations for its 2022 weekly Music Industry Mondays talk and networking series.

After successfully launching last year, the night will return every Monday during term time between 6-8PM at the college’s Music Box venue near London’s Southbank, with the addition of an open mic performance hour after the weekly topic-based discussion.

Partnering with industry trade body UK Music, LCCM kickstarted the free-to-attend Music Industry Mondays series in September 2021, determined to help the London music community bounce back from the disruptions of the pandemic. Each Monday at 6PM the college will open up its 120-capacity venue, with a fully licensed bar for an evening of music industry discussion and networking.

For those who can’t attend on the day, the talks are filmed and edited into full-length episodes to watch back via LCCM’s student cloud portal and UK Music’s MAP network of other higher education providers. Previous guests have included Nadia Khan, Good Soldier Records, The Music Federation, Mute Song, artist Carmody and platinum-selling songwriter Rob Davis.

This year, the programming has expanded to include multiple industry sectors, giving attendees a bird’s eye view of the modern music economy, as well as an open mic performance opportunity. Get ready to mark those diaries – the confirmed line up is as follows:

The first of the Music Industry Mondays will be on September 26 with Jo Howarth, artist manager at Attention Management.

Over the next weeks up until December 12, there will be a range of guests including Mark Murdoch, Mahogany Records & Sessions; Nick Oakes, Sony Music Publishing; Gemma Farrington, Sentric Music; Melanie Shark, Utopia; and Graham Davies from Ivors Academy.

“We host these weekly discussions to give young musicians, students and anyone who is passionate about music, real insights from top executives, artists, songwriters and decision makers,” says LCCM Principal Anthony Hamer-Hodges. “It’s always a lively discussion with questions from the audience and a chance to network at the bar afterwards. Once we are done talking about music, obviously nothing beats actually listening to talented singers showcasing their talent. The addition of the live open mic element will give anyone in attendance a chance to wow their peers and our industry guests.”

The latest line-up of industry guests and organisations is another sign of LCCM’s position at the crossroads of talent development and higher education, while the college’s new visiting lecturer, legendary music executive Mathew Knowles arrives for his first sessions with students at the end of the September.

London College of Contemporary Media (LCCM)’s Youth Music Officer, Evie Asio has released
her second single “Available”. An alternative soul track, it was named as Jazz FM’s Late Night Track of the Week on the influential Late Night China Moses show.

With international play on MFM Radio with her first single Pendulum in 2020, Evie’s return sees an alternative-soul track that looks to guide the listener through her own personal struggles with social injustice, all from a second-person perspective.

Self-produced, between her grassroots church studio and home, “Available” gives a nod towards several of her musical influences, including NAO, Hiatus Kaiyote and Jacob Collier. The composition plays with the ideas of contrast, balancing classic 80s snares against punchy guitar riffs and soaring string lines, which tie in with the main theme of the lyrics, that commonality can be found in the most seemingly different things.

“The subject is very different to every other song I’ve written,” says Evie. “It was a poet at an open mic that made me want to reflect on my own feelings about social injustice; however, I love how the song also tells a wider story about the difficulties of reflecting on our own shortcomings.”

As a singer-songwriter and producer from South East London, Evie works as the LCCM Youth Music Officer, providing opportunities for young musicians to connect to LCCM and enhance their music career opportunities. She also leads the LCCM Women in Music initiative, which seeks to challenge and remove barriers for women within the LCCM community and beyond.

“Available” is the second single from Evie’s upcoming debut album, Contending and Contention.