ACM Guitar Degree graduate Carmen Vandenberg has managed to cram a lot in to the last two years of her life. As well as studying for her BMus Honours Degree in Professional Music Performance, she also managed to find time to grace some of the world’s biggest stages, playing with some of the UK’s top pop acts, whilst also getting signed by one of the biggest names in the industry.
In 2010 Carmen left Italy to continue her music studies in the UK. Rather than just concentrating on her Degree, Carmen took advantage of ACM’s Business and Artist Development Centre, whose role is to find work opportunities for students within the music industry.
The first major success for Carmen came when leading pop star Kate Nash contacted ACM looking to form a band to take on tour. Carmen auditioned along with many other ACM’s students, and was one of three girls to be chosen by Kate and her manager, who also studied at ACM.
More recently Carmen was chosen as the session guitarist for X-Factor finalist Cher Lloyd, and has now been signed by industry guru Guy Chambers. Together they are working on new material, with releases planned for launch soon. Despite the heavy workload, Carmen continued to focus on her studies and has recently completed her accelerated two year Degree programme, proof that it is possible to gain a qualification and forge an impressive career at the same time.
“I’ve met some of the most influential people of my life at ACM. In the past 2 years I’ve been inspired by both fellow students and tutors to continuously want more from yourself and work that extra bit that’ll get you somewhere – and it’s fun.”
Carmen Vandenberg Speaking about ACM
For more information check out Carmen’s own website – www.carmenvandenberg.com. We wish Carmen all the best in her career and look forward to her returning to ACM to help future students also become an integral part of the music industry.
