Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Information

The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (Welsh: Coleg Brenhinol Cerdd a Drama Cymru) is a conservatoire located in Cardiff, Wales. It is member of the Federation of Drama Schools. It includes three theatres: the Richard Burton Theatre, the Bute Theatre, and the Caird Studio. It also includes one concert hall, the Dora Stoutzker Hall. Its alumni include Anthony Hopkins, Aneurin Barnard and Rob Brydon.

The College was established in 1949 as Cardiff College of Music at Cardiff Castle, but has since moved to purpose-built accommodation within the castle grounds of Bute Park near Cardiff University. It later changed its name to the Welsh College of Music and Drama before being awarded its Royal title in The Queens Golden Jubilee in 2002, making it the fifth conservatoire to be awarded this title.

From its opening, the Colleges degrees were awarded by the University of Wales and in 2004 the College became part of the federal university. In 2007, however, it left the university and agreed to a merger (referred to as a "strategic alliance") with the University of Glamorgan. The University of Glamorgan merged with the University of Wales, Newport in 2013 to form the University of South Wales, so RWCMD is now part of the University of South Wales Group.

The college provides education and training in the performing arts and technical theatre, with approximately two-thirds of its 550 students studying music-related courses and the rest studying drama and technical theatre related courses. It was the first, and is only one of two All-Steinway conservatoires in the UK, along with Leeds College of Music.

A £22.5m expansion of the College was opened in 2011, including two new performance venues (Richard Burton Theatre and Dora Stoutzker Hall), a new front of house area and rehearsal studios.

In 2010, as part of the Colleges 60th anniversary celebrations, students from the College performed in a gala concert at Buckingham Palace, attended by the Colleges Patron the Prince of Wales. A second gala evening was presented at Buckingham Palace in 2016 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Colleges new facilities.

The College offers undergraduate degrees in the following areas:

The College also offers postgraduate degrees in the following areas;

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