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 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. Our WaterBear Sheffield students had talk from Ditto Music about distribution, a talk from A&R representatives from Universal Music, free tickets and early access to a Tigercub gig, and a masterclass from Rich Goodwin, manager of The Reytons. 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 Sheffield's upcoming development week features a variety of amazing events. In Sheffield, our students will have the opportunity for the following: 

• Monday, 26^th February: In Conversation with ADMT - WaterBear students will have the opportunity to hear from Doncaster’s rising star ADMT, as he discusses the reality of the modern music industry, talking about his experiences as a musician as well as answering questions.

• Wednesday, 28^th February: In Conversation with Katherine Cantwell - Katherine Cantwell is the social media manager at Heavenly Recordings, the famous London-based label which had the likes Saint Etienne and Doves signed.  Katherine will be leading a masterclass in social media strategies, informing students about the best practises within the world of social media marketing.

• Thursday, 29^th February: In Conversation with Christian Carlisle  - Christian Carlisle is one of the main hosts of BBC Music Introducing – Leeds and Sheffield. Christian’s role has ensured he is at the forefront of the grassroots music scene in Sheffield. He will be discussing how young artists can get onto BBC Introducing, and why doing so is so important for aspiring musicians. 

• Friday, 1^st March: Laura White Songwriting Masterclass - Laura White is a Grammy nominated songwriter with billions of streams on Spotify. She has worked with Andre 3000, Rita Ora, Ms Banks and a variety of other famous musicians. Laura will be conducting a masterclass in songwriting for our students, offering them her insight into what goes into writing successful songs. 

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. 

View our Courses  

Book an Open Day  

Download a Prospectus  

Start Your Application  

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.