RNCM offers Seoul auditions as South Korea partnership expands
Ten prospective students auditioned locally for places at the Royal Northern College of Music during a week-long programme in Seoul that also included a new international piano competition attracting more than 50 performers.
Professors from the RNCM’s School of Keyboard Studies travelled to South Korea for BIEK Global Arts Week 2026, delivering masterclasses, concerts and competition activity alongside British International Education Korea (BIEK).
The programme included the inaugural RNCM Seoul International Piano Competition, while prospective students were able to complete admissions auditions without travelling to the UK.
RNCM Head of School Professor Graham Scott was joined by Professor of Piano Simon Callaghan, who is also Founding Director of Music at BIEK. The pair taught, adjudicated and performed during the week.
Events included a public faculty concert, From Shadow to Celebration, bringing together British and Korean artists in music by Poulenc, Schubert, Debussy, Beethoven, Schumann and Milhaud, followed later in the programme by an Award Winners’ Gala Concert.
The initiative was delivered with BIEK’s Seoul team, including Partnership Director Henry Aronsson and Korea Director Byeongdo Choi, in collaboration with About Classic Group.
Professor Simon Callaghan said: ‘Ten students auditioned for the RNCM in Seoul without having to get on a plane, and I doubt all of them would otherwise have had the opportunity.
‘Across the masterclasses, the competition and the auditions, what struck me was not only the standard of the playing, which was consistently high, but that we were asking a different set of questions from the ones these students were used to, and that exchange runs in both directions.’
He added that BIEK’s established relationships with schools, teachers and families in South Korea had been central to delivering the programme.
The RNCM said it plans to build on the collaboration with BIEK during 2027 and beyond as part of its wider international recruitment and exchange activity.