The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama is launching a new PhD program centered on interdisciplinary, practice based doctoral research with cultural and social impact.

Students in the program will have access to the college’s partnerships with organizations including BBC Wales, Welsh National Opera, Bad Wolf, Sherman Theatre, Theatr Clwyd, and Ty Cerdd, along with community groups such as Forget Me Not Chorus, National Youth Arts Wales, and Race Council Cymru. The college’s Old Library campus in Cardiff, already used for community projects, will serve as a hub for doctoral work connected to the college’s Open RWCMD strategy, which focuses on how the arts engage communities across different geographic, economic, and cultural contexts.

Doctoral students will also have access to the college’s archival holdings, among them the Foyle Opera Rara Collection of nineteenth century scores, manuscripts, costume designs, and memorabilia, as well as the Drama Association of Wales collection of English language scripts, specialist holdings of composers including Mervyn Burtch, Alun Hoddinott, Graham Whetham, Mansel Thomas, and David Harries, and rare Shakespeare editions spanning the eighteenth through twentieth centuries. The collections also include digital and physical archives of designers Paul Brown and Pamela Howard.

“At RWCMD, our ambition is to create an integrated research and enterprise environment nurturing and empowering new work and innovation for the arts,” said Helena Gaunt, principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, per an official press release. “Our PhD programme champions new artistic work and professional practice across our disciplines, supported by integrated technologies and our focus on collaboration and sharing of knowledge.   Through enterprising student-led and graduate work embedded across our degree programs, we see innovation as a driver of excellence but also a powerful way of connecting with new audiences and communities.”

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