London College of Music examinations in music, and in drama and communication, are held at centres worldwide. Our qualifications are unique in the graded exam sector in being awarded by a university.
The LCME Community
We are a diverse and forward-thinking community of learners, teachers, examiners, representatives and leading experts in their fields.
Since the college’s founding in 1887, we have welcomed all those who share our passion for music and drama, inspiring generations of students worldwide to become performers, composers, teachers and informed listeners.
Our Qualifications
We offer qualifications in classical, contemporary and traditional music, drama, communication, spoken English, early learning and creative media.
Our qualifications range from introductory exams for beginners through graded exams and diplomas in performance and teaching. As an awarding body, we have pioneered the development of flexible examination formats, giving candidates in many subjects the ability to be assessed entirely or predominantly in performance.
Our Publications
Mastering an instrument involves spending months and years with the books that you learn from. We want our learners to love spending this time with our publications.
We believe that books can be beautiful, special and rewarding in many ways-from the inventiveness of the content and the quality of the editing to the look and feel of the publication.
Celebrating diversity
The London College of Music was founded on the principle of offering music education to all who wish to learn. From the beginning, the courses offered were open to all ages and backgrounds, regardless of gender — an emphasis on accessibility which was unique in comparison with the other music colleges of the time. This ethos continues to inspire us as we continue to lead the way in developing exam provision which is relevant to today’s global world.
Our Values
Music for all…
We believe all of our learners should have access to a consistent, creative and rewarding provision of assessment, regardless of instrument or genre. We value all of our subjects equally, ensuring that each syllabus has a clear and consistent framework, providing candidates with the most useful assessment of their performances and compositions and fostering an enduring love, enjoyment and understanding of the performing arts.
… not the few
Music education is increasingly viewed as a privilege. Barriers exist to those who cannot afford to pay for instruments, books and tuition. We believe that instrumental tuition should be a universal right for everyone and, through our partnership with Every Child a Musician in the London borough of Newham, LCME is at the forefront of an inspiring scheme to offer all primary school children a free musical instrument and tuition.
Diversity and Inclusion
Examination boards play a large part in shaping the culture of society — for many young learners, the works they prepare for exams play a key part in shaping their expectations and aspirations of music and drama. We are renewing the founding ethos of the London College of Music for the 21st century by working hard to ensure that our syllabuses are more diverse and representative of the people that take our exams.
Our aim is to inspire the next generation with role models to aspire to.
Our Commitment
LCME is committed to encouraging perspectives which are more reflective of the diversity within our society. We strive to be relevant and of interest to people from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds. LCME is proactively addressing the gender balance among contemporary composers and authors within each of our syllabuses.
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Exams are offered across a wide range of subjects, catering for all levels of ability.
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