London College of Music

The London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England, which is part of the University of West London.

The LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at Great Marlborough Street in central London until 1991. The college then moved to Ealing and became part of the Polytechnic of West London (which became Thames Valley University in 1992 and was renamed the University of West London in 2011).

In 1996, the university created a school called the London College of Music and Media (LCMM or LCM²) which encompassed LCM and a range of media-related subjects such as music technology, radio, journalism and other creative and digital arts. In 2005 LCMM was renamed the Faculty of the Arts, with music related subjects administered by the Department of Music. As of March 2007, the music department once again began to operate under the title of the London College of Music.

Former principals of the London College of Music include William Lloyd Webber, John McCabe, and Professor Colin Lawson (Director of the Royal College of Music since 2005). The current Acting Head of Music is Sara Raybould. The Chair of Composition and Head of Research Development is Professor Francis Pott.

Visiting professors at the LCM include internationally renowned musicians such as John Lill, Howard Shelley, Malcolm Binns and Martino Tirimo.

The external examinations department of London College of Music is known as London College of Music Examinations (LCM Examinations), which is currently a department of the University of West London.

The music technology department of LCM incorporates 25 recording studios, plus the Native Instruments Labs (containing 40 Mac computers). Aside from offering music technology courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, LCM is also an official Native Instruments training centre and offers Apple certified Logic, Pro Tools and Ableton Live training courses. The music technology teaching staff includes Grammy Award winning record producer Pip Williams, Journal on the Art of Record Production editor Simon Zagorski-Thomas, producer Paul Borg, and long-time Transglobal Underground collaborator Larry Whelan.

Recent Alumni include Alex da Kid (English record production/songwriter, now based in LA) Matt Tong of Bloc Party, Matthew Hodson (founder of the London Synthesis Orchestra), Ben Salter (who worked with Nile Rodgers in the United States), Paul Andrews (working as a senior field support technician for Digidesign), Daniel Roe (house engineer for Peter Gabriel), Tim Siddall (engineer at Shepperton Studios), James Buttery (former engineer at the Royal College of Music now singer with Darkstar and Sunbirds), Robert Orton (worked with Trevor Horn, The Police and won 2 Grammys for mixing Lady Gaga), and Nadin Hadorn (recently signed a worldwide publishing and production contract with Warner Bros. Records), John Webber (Engineer Blue Pro Mastering, Polar Bear, Grammy winners Ian Prince & The Swingle Singers, Nerina Pallot and Mr Hudson).