CAO Special - Rachel Fogarty: "I’ve definitely benefited from the opportunities BIMM has brought me"

Music was always what I wanted to do - I was the annoying child who held impromptu concerts for her family, the twelve-year-old playing Taylor Swift at talent shows, and the teenager making bad demos in her room.

As I got older, I didn’t know in what capacity I could have a career in music. In my mind there were two options - get famous or become a teacher, and teaching didn’t really appeal to me.
When I was researching courses, I found that most music degrees in Ireland covered trad and classical music, which I wasn’t very interested in. Many also required sight reading or grades for auditions, and as someone who never had any formal training, that wasn’t very appealing.

I had plenty of performing experience and loved to write and play music but I had no grades to ‘prove’ it. As eager as I was to go to college and learn, those courses never felt like the right fit. BIMM seemed perfect when I found it. A course designed around the modern music industry.

The audition process focused more on your strengths and talent as an individual songwriter/artist, instead of trying to fit a mould. It was all the aspects I loved – pop, songwriting, performing and production – with the bonus of the music business, which I knew nothing about.

While it did take a minute to convince my parents, it ended up being the only course I put on my CAO form. I knew it was the right fit. You might not need college to work in music or be a musician, but I wanted to go to college, and I’ve definitely benefited from the opportunities BIMM has brought me.

For more information, visit bimm.ie.

Read the full education special ahead of the CAO results in the new issue of Hot Press, out now.