JAMES Outstanding Achievement Award 2021

JAMES, who accredit our most of our Music and Sound courses, sponsor a range of prizes for outstanding achievement. Their accreditation provides students and parents industry reassurances of curriculum quality and confidence that the course is preparing students for employment.

Emma worked incredibly hard during a very challenging year and was able to produce some excellent work. Being able to adapt to and excel in these challenging times is a skill many employers are looking for. Our courses offer a blend of academic support and tuition and many extra curricular opportunities to help students develop as both independent and collaborative industry practitioners.

We quickly caught up with Emma to find out more.

What does winning the JAMES prize mean to you?

I feel extremely grateful for being presented with the James award in Music Production, particularly after my challenging final year in lockdown. This award really highlights the effort that I put into my assignments and the personal progress I believe that I made across the course. I am delighted that out of many talented students my ability has been acknowledged and I have been able to start my career within the Leeds music scene.

What has your experience of the BA (Hons) Music Production course been?

I found the course over the three years engaging yet challenging. I was encouraged to expand my interest into different fields of music production, such as film music, and this grew to be one of my favourite modules. I really became inspired by the different avenues in genre that this module presented, and this resulted in me creating a piece of music to suit a ‘thriller’ film clip from the film Maze Runner. This is a clear example of an area of music production which I would not have considered tackling if it weren’t for my university course. Another aspect to note would be the Electronic Dance Music Repertoire module. As a passionate House music producer, I was very keen to become immersed in this module and expand my skills in dance music production. One of the tracks that I created for this module resulted in my debut signing to a record label and this is greatly due to the feedback given to me by the Leeds Beckett Tutors. They provided me with some great contacts concerning music labels and artists.

What are the facilities and support like at Leeds School of Arts?

The studio resources throughout my course were unbelievable however the new additions to the LSA building have allowed for these resources to be improved even further, with specialist spaces to suit work for film music, mixing, and more. I am very grateful that this support from tutors can extend past the completion of my course with feedback on my current mixes being communicated. I am frequently DJ’ing around Leeds, supporting artists such as Hot Since 82, alongside working on new tracks and I am thankful to Leeds Beckett for inspiring me to further my interest and engagement with Music Production in the Leeds scene. I am grateful for the many opportunities which are currently being presented to me and I think Leeds was the right choice to create my contacts in the industry.