By Hayley Sigrist
The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) and Metropolis Studios have announced the introduction of a Freddie Mercury Scholarship, backed by Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May.
The award will be presented later this year, in honour of the singer’s 70th birthday on September 5. It will be awarded to one student studying on the Creative Artist route of the BA (Hons) Music Industry Practice programme, the BA (Hons) Commercial Songwriting programme or the BA (Hons) Professional Music Performance degree programme at ACM, as delivered from the academy’s London campuses. The scholarship is set to cover a students entire study path, worth up to £27,000.
Queen band member Roger Taylor, who is also a patron of ACM and has a drum studio named after him at the academy's Guildford campus, said, “Freddie’s name endures in so many ways so it’s therefore great to have this scholarship celebrating his musical genius.”
The ACM@Metropolis academy is based in the Metropolis Studios in Chiswick and ACM London, the brand new campus for September 2016, is situated in Clapham. The programme includes songwriting, performance, production and business modules, all conveyed in accordance to ACM’S “learning by doing” ethos.
Metropolis Studios, where Queen recorded most of their Innuendo album, is open to ACM students. Parts of their course are studied within the studio complex, drawing them into the academy’s in-house label, publishing and production teams.
Metropolis Studios CEO Ian Brenchley said: “We are hugely excited to be entering into this partnership and to be able to offer the scholarship to one lucky student. Freddie’s spirit is alive and well at Metropolis, where he wrote and recorded so much of his material and his legacy lives on every time his Fazioli grand piano is played in our flagship studio.
“Aside from our work with chart-topping artists like Adele, Amy Winehouse and Sam Smith, a lot of what we do is supporting emerging talent, whether through us delivering workshops and master classes to the ACM students who study at the studio, attend our events and take advantage of internship placement opportunities, or the external emerging talent discovered by our A&R teams for development deals on our in-house label, signing them to our publishing company and providing them with a platform at our regular industry showcase nights. So to be able to offer even greater access via the scholarship will allow us to honour Freddie’s legacy in the most appropriate way possible - supporting the next generation of talent.”
Applications for the ACM’s study programmes are now open for 2016.
