Channel Islands music school to hit global stage with Dubai launch

A team of directors from the School Of Popular Music will be jetting off to Dubai this weekend, ahead of their new studio opening.

SOPM was set up in Guernsey in 2014 and expanded to Jersey in 2022.

The school announced an expansion to the Middle East in January this year. Construction was completed in Dubai on 22 April.

A team of directors are flying to Expo City this weekend, ahead of the grand opening on 2 May.

One of them Andy Robinson, says they were fortunate that the conflict in the region did not delay the project.

"It's not something we're worried about too much. We've got a team on the ground there, and they're just cracking on with things.

"There's no real concern from them, although there has been a visible decrease in footfall in the area.

"I think a few people have left, but we're confident everyone's going to return, and it's going to thrive again.

Andy says they have big plans for the future:

"This is our first location in the Middle East, and hopefully we'll have a few more, and we actually have plans for several others as well.

"We've just moved into a bigger building in Jersey, so we're definitely committed there, and we are going to need to expand in Guernsey very soon as well, because we've exhausted all the rooms that we have there.

"There's no reason for us to, once we've got a good amount of locations, to start doing little tours for bands and taking them to the different locations and doing some gigs.

"Once we've got a good amount of locations set up, the possibilities are endless."

Andy says they plan to show off their Channel Island roots in Dubai.

"We've got this lovely new building with lots of Channel Island faces on the walls.

We have canvases of drummers performing at events in Guernsey and Jersey.

"It will be nice for us to be out there and see a lot of our students from here on the walls as we walk past.

"We also have SOPM TV, so we have little student spotlight videos that we record, and they're displayed, so you will see when you're in Guernsey, SOPM, you'll see students performing on the television from Jersey and from Dubai, and the same when you're in Dubai, you'll see a lot of Guernsey and Jersey students on the TV there."