London-based digital sheet music platform nkoda has announced a partnership with the Royal College of Music (RCM), offering students and academic staff access to hundreds of thousands of scores and parts from a wide repertoire. The College is nkoda’s first higher education customer.
The RCM, which is the highest-ranking institution for performing arts in the UK for the past five years according to the QS World University Rankings, already offers students and staff access to a wide range of online resources. Whilst Covid-19 lockdown measures remain in place in the UK, teaching and learning has moved online and the RCM’s faculty is delivering a newly designed curriculum of specialist classes digitally.
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 over 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, said:
‘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, said:
‘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.’
Header photo: a student using nkoda © Filip Klimaszewski
