Plans in for £40m Birmingham conservatoire

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has submitted plans for what is said to be the UK’s first newly built conservatoire for a generation.

A conservatoire is a college for the study of classical music or other arts.

If the city council approves the proposal, work would start next summer and be completed in 2017.

The scheme will be a new home for Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, which traces it history back to 1886.

The first complete new-build conservatoire in the UK since 1987, it will comprise five performance venues, including a public concert hall with the capacity for more than 450 seats and a full orchestra, plus a recital hall with 150 seats and smaller experimental music spaces, organ and jazz rooms.

There are also plans for more than 70 music practice rooms of various sizes.

It will be situated alongside Millennium Point and the university’s city centre campus in Birmingham’s learning quarter.  

High-profile graduates of Birmingham Conservatoire include the MOBO award-winning singer/songwriter Laura Mvula and X Factor finalist Rhydian Roberts.

The university’s vice-chancellor Cliff Allan said: “This new building provides us with a glorious opportunity to build on our proud history and continue to develop world-class music facilities for future generations.”