Education Focus: Oxford Creative Academy

Oxford Creative Academy

Oxford Creative Academy is Sydney's newest and most unique music college! What makes us so unique? Firstly, Oxford Creative Academy is the first Australian music college to be partnered with a major music venue — Oxford Art Factory. Secondly, our classes are held between Oxford Art Factory and the world renowned Hercules Street Studios in Surry Hills. Hercules Street Studios has hosted the likes of Metallica, Mariah Carey, Daniel Johns, Flume, Peking Duk, St Vincent, Harts and many more. By holding our classes in both a working studio and a world famous venue allows our students to approach their musical career in a hands-on way. Oxford Creative Academy offers practical courses for creative people.

About Us

OCA began in 2015 as a creative collaboration between The A&R Department and Oxford Art Factory. In a career that spans over 25 years, Managing Director Matt O'Connor has worked with some of the biggest acts in Australian music: The Beautiful Girls, Harts, Sparkadia, Meg Mac, SAFIA, Shihad, Magic Dirt, Thirsty Merc, Savage, The Occupants, Disco Montego. He continues to work in a variety of diverse roles such as production, artist development, management and A&R.

Matt wanted to create a space in which budding music entrepreneurs can learn from industry professionals with real world experience. Students are taught within the 12-week courses how to apply these skills in a practical way, so that they can maximise the success of their careers immediately. This idea has grown rapidly in the last few months and OCA currently has five courses on offer to appeal to all types of music lovers.

Courses on Offer:

Fundamentals Course:

Learn the core fundamentals that you need to succeed in the music industry. This course will guide you to the area where your interest and passions lie, covering songwriting, music production, audio engineering, live sound and the music business.  

Songwriting Specialisation: Get right into the mind of a songwriter. This course specialises in basic music theory and lyric workshops, and covers in depth rhythm, melody, harmony and defining artist direction. 

Music Production Specialisation: A specialisation for dedicated, aspiring producers. This course will dissect drum programming and mixing, bass programming, synth textures, vocal production, guitar techniques and production aesthetics.  

Audio Engineering Specialisation: Delve deep into the digital and analogue music world. This course specialises in sound recording, microphone techniques, EQ, compression, and what it takes to create your own sonic signature. 

Business Entertainment Specialisation: Understand all you need to know about the modern entertainment business. In this course we tailor an individual development plan for launching and managing your creative career, products and portfolio, right into the marketplace. 

Our courses run over 12 weeks with two hours per week face to face in class lectures at Hercules Studios and three hours per week home study.

Integration Nights and our Oxford Art Factory Showcase

Another exciting and unique aspect of Oxford Creative Academy is our integration nights. Our integration nights take place in weeks four, eight and 12. These nights allow students from all of the different courses to network, create and manage an event that will take place at Oxford Art Factory at the end of their 12-week course. This provides an immediate way for students to apply their newfound skills in a working environment.

These events at Oxford Art Factory create an opportunity for students to gain real world experience and confidence, with the added bonus of advice and direction from their experienced lecturers. This enables our students to immerse themselves in the running of a successful venue, and provides our musicians with an exciting platform to perform.

Want to know more?

If you would like to come and experience Oxford Creative Academy for yourself we are holding an open day on 21 May at Hercules Street Studios.

Our open day will include:

A live mixing demonstration with professional mixing engineers who will showcase the skills needed to mix a professional track for radio

A studio tour, in which you will preview the workings of a professional studio

An industry presentation from Managing Director and music entrepreneur Matt O'Connor (Warner Music, The A&R Department) with an introduction to the Oxford Creative Academy

Enrolment information for OCA's Courses in June 2016

Q&A sessions with our speakers throughout the day.

If you would like to enrol in our course Trimester two starts on 6 Jun 2016.

To enrol please email: isabella@oxfordcreativeacademy.com