WaterBear – The College of Music is continuing its commitment to the focused development of its students through the return of its successful development week programme. Rather than a typical ‘reading week’ which many Universities have, where students have a week without any teaching, WaterBear instead offers a development week, where various masterclasses, talks, and other activities take places across both its campuses.  

WaterBear’s last development week, in October 2023, saw a series of incredible events across both venues. Students at WaterBear Brighton had the opportunity to work with a full string quartet, a masterclass on the Theory of Musical Relativity, and a talk from renowned dance label Toolroom records. As is visible from these events, WaterBear’s development week offers a variety of different music industry-based opportunities for our students, ensuring that there is something for anyone, and giving our students varied, yet hugely important, perspectives on the different parts of the industry. 

WaterBear’s upcoming development week features a variety of amazing events. In Brighton, our students will have the opportunity for the following: 

• Tuesday, 27^th February: Songwriting Camp with Jade Williams, Networking Event & Open Mic Night - WaterBear students in Brighton will have the opportunity to attend an exclusive songwriting camp led by tutor Jade Williams, where songwriters and singers will be part of writing teams, getting together in one of the five studios we’ll have setup across Brighton campus. This will be followed by a networking event in the Brighthelm basement and then an Open Mic Night at our very own WaterBear venue. 
• Wednesday, 28^th February: Songwriting Camp (continued) with Reservoir Media - The songwriting camp will continue into Wednesday and will end with a listening and feedback session of the songs written with Reservoir Media’s Senior Creative Manager Russell Hunt. 
• Thursday, 29^th February: 'Make Money From Your Music With Sync’ Talk & Universal Music Showcase - Our students will be able to attend a talk hosted by representatives of both Extreme Music and Emeralds Music. Titled ‘Make Money From Your Music With Sync’, this talk will be an amazing opportunity for our students to learn about the world of sync and the opportunities is presents for aspiring musicians. Then following that, we have a showcase with A&R representatives from Universal Music Group coming into WaterBear Brighton. There will be a Q&A session with the team from UMG, as well as opportunity four our students to audition in from of them and receive feedback on their music. 
• Friday, 1^st March: The Bear Cave: WaterBear’s Answer to Dragon’s Den - WaterBear’s very own answer to Dragon’s Den, the Bear Cave will be an opportunity for our students to present a pitch for a music project or business idea to The Bears, three music industry experts who are looking to give away big money to big ideas and offer invaluable feedback and advice. Students will be able to present in person or online, and it will offer them  

These events represent WaterBear’s overall commitment to providing our students with opportunities to allow them to evolve within the music industry and demonstrate the effectiveness of WaterBear’s ‘Development Week’ concept. Students can book via Canvas or BeeBop.

WaterBear offers BA (Hons) degree and master’s courses made for today’s musicians, artists and industry professionals. Its colleges are based in the heart of Brighton and Sheffield, two amazing UK cities with incredible musical roots and heritage. The college also has a range of online distance learning courses. 

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WaterBear is a College of Falmouth University, a pioneer in creative industries education, entrepreneurship and innovation. Run by musicians, for musicians WaterBear is about smaller class sizes, flexible course delivery, bespoke one-to-one mentoring and exclusive work experience and career development opportunities.