Guildhall Connect: Centre for Creative & Professional Practice

The Centre for Creative and Professional Practice was established in 2007 following the School's pioneering work within the fields of Composition, Electronic Music, Improvisation, Jazz, Leadership, Music Therapy and Arts & Community Development over the past two decades. The activities of the Centre include seminars, workshops, collaborative projects and performance events and are open to students from all departments. Particular focuses of activity include cross-departmental projects and collaborations involving students, staff and a range of visiting artists from the professional world. The music-making is essentially group and ensemble-based and takes place in a variety of formal and non-formal settings, and draws on a broad range of styles and influences.

The Centre is committed to exploring and creating new landscapes in music, art and performance. It seeks to offer undergraduate and postgraduate music students unique and distinctive experiences as creators, collaborators and performers, as well as to give the skills necessary in order to meet the demands and expectations of the profession. An annual event is the Guildhall Festival, which is a day of performances throughout the School building. Recent festivals include Tomorrow Never Knows, which focused on the lifetime's work of Guildhall School alumnus Sir George Martin and Revolution which celebrated various revolutionary movements, both political and artistic, through a broad range of performance events which took place across the School.

The Centre is also helping to establish much stronger School-wide connections with the Drama department through joint productions, courses in circus skills and storytelling, and music-drama improvisation initiatives such as 'Open Call'. These activities are helping to place creative, cross-disciplinary collaboration at the centre of the School's life and provide students with the opportunity to explore the professional performing arts world at a local, national and international level.

As its name implies, Guildhall Connect is committed as a Centre to helping people keep in touch with each other. As part of this commitment, it provides a support framework for students managing the transition from the Guildhall School to professional life and, where possible, supports pioneering initiatives undertaken by recent graduates as either individuals or ensembles/companies. Regular Continuing Professional Development training is also available for recent graduates and established professional practitioners.