15 years of Commercial Music
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Commercial Music course celebrates 15 years of success
Wednesday, 10 July, 2019Bath Spa University’s Commercial Music department hosted a special anniversary celebration for past students at London’s Groucho Club in June, to mark 15 years since the launch of the course in 2004. The event highlighted the contribution its alumni are making to the world of commercial music and the wider creative sector across the UK and globally.
The 60 alumni present included Jess Keeley-Carter, Global Vice-President of Digital Marketing Warner Brothers; Mike Dawes, recently voted Best Acoustic Guitarist in the world on Musicradar.com; and Sam Kennedy, a star from TV’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, known professionally as Maddox the Magician, and discovered by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, when supporting the band as a musician on an American tour.
Jim Dickinson who heads up the University’s Commercial Music courses said: “One of the reasons our courses continue to be so popular is the evidence of what they can lead to in terms of a profession, as evidenced by everyone here.
“Our alumni's success in this industry is not just based on skill, talent, and hard work, but also on our network, the peer group they as students grew up with, and the connections we help them make for life.”
Bath Spa University Commercial Music alumni include:
- Joe Schiavon and Ryan Snell of Live Nation,
- Ian Evans from IME Music, currently running four festivals,
- Ben Jackson-Cook who is co-writing Rag’n’Bone Man’s second album,
- Alex Kotz, Grammy nominated as Elderbrook/Parlophone,
- Jed Elliott of The Struts and
- Oli Ferris, who recently won an Emmy for his Foley work on TV series ‘Black Mirror’.
There are also alumni from the Commercial Music course working at Google, The Guardian, PRS for Music (formerly the Performing Rights Society and Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society), Shambala Festival, and Sony.
“We couldn’t be more proud of them all. They are stunningly talented, an inspiration to our current students, and superb ambassadors for Bath Spa University,” said Jim.