The Royal College of Music (RCM) is the first Higher Education institution to partner with digital sheet music library nkoda, offering students and professors access to hundreds of thousands of scores and parts from a vast range of repertoire.
The top institution for performing arts in the UK for the past five years according to the QS World University Rankings, the RCM offers students and staff access to a wide range of online resources. Whilst lockdown measures remain in place in the UK, teaching and learning has moved online and the RCM’s world-class professors are delivering a newly designed, rich curriculum of specialist classes digitally. The partnership with nkoda further represents the RCM’s commitment to facilitating the best possible learning experience for its students during lockdown and beyond.
Described as ‘the Spotify of sheet music’, nkoda can be accessed via phone, tablet or desktop and gives users access to digital sheet music from a wide range of repertoire, including solo, chamber and orchestral works.
RCM students and professors will gain access to upwards of six million pages of music with around 1,000 new titles added each month, including works which are normally only available to hire from libraries. Scores can be downloaded and used offline and markings can be shared between users. Titles from over 100 publishers are available, including Bärenreiter, Boosey & Hawkes, Breitkopf und Härtel, Faber Music, PWM, Sikorski, Universal Music Group and Wise Music Group.
RCM Librarian, Peter Linnit, comments: ‘I am delighted that the Royal College of Music has become the first institution in the world to partner with nkoda. The RCM Library offers a range of online resources and with nkoda we can further support our students’ core studies and individual practice needs. Having access to nkoda’s comprehensive library will have a significant impact on student learning, greatly increasing the range of music they can experience and opening up new ways of working. This is particularly important whilst lockdown measures remain in place and students are looking to online resources to support the continuation of their studies.’
CEO of nkoda, Lorenzo Brewer, comments: ‘We’re really proud to be partnering with the Royal College of Music, one of the best institutions for music education in the world. This partnership marks what we think is a major shift in the importance of digital resources for learning – brought into stark relief by what we are all living through right now. We can’t wait to see the amazing things that the students, professors, and staff at RCM will do with nkoda.’
Royal College of Music students and staff enjoy access to a large volume of ebooks, journals and dictionaries via the RCM Library, as well as recordings by Naxos Music Library, MetOnline and the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall. Priority access to nkoda will be given to RCM students, followed by professorial staff.