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MusicDubai

by Alexandra Mansilla

To Make Local Stories Go Global. Inside Digital Renaissance Music Institute

2 Jul 2025

Photo: Fedya Ro

Imagine the perfect place to learn music. What would it look like? A place where you can actually learn to play an instrument, sure. But what else? Maybe somewhere they show you how to own the stage, how to really present yourself as an artist. Somewhere, you pick up the business side, because management is a big deal for any musician. A place where you get the inside scoop on working with labels, too. Plus, the teachers there aren’t just instructors, they are truly passionate about what they do and share real-life experience. And it should be a place you actually want to come to — not just a regular school or institute, but a real creative space that inspires you. And the students are hungry for new things; they want to create, and the whole place is filled with this magical atmosphere of collaboration.
Sounds like the ideal place, right? This is exactly what is opening in Dubai — the Digital Renaissance Music Institute. It is launching soon in Dubai Knowledge Park, with a bold mission: to redefine what modern music education can be and to empower the next generation of creators. And here is something important — they are all about supporting the local scene, helping homegrown talent find their way onto the global stage.
So, what will they actually teach? Who are the people behind it? How does it all work? And, of course, how much does it cost? We had a lot of questions, so we sat down with co-founder Dmitry Panov to get all the answers.
P.S. If you have been looking for a place like this to learn music, join the waitlist now! This way, you will be the first to know all the programme details, important dates, and get special updates — and you will be first in line for an invite to admission interviews for the courses you are into.
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Dmitry Panov

— Dmitry, can you tell us how the idea to open a music institute in Dubai came about? And who is this institute for?
— The idea for a music institute in Dubai first came to us around May 2024. By "us," I mean myself — I’m the co-founder and former director of Moscow Music School — and my partner, Alexander Nikolsky. Alexander is a businessman and a true music enthusiast: he has his own band, Close to Monday, collects synthesisers, and is deeply passionate about music.
We started by doing some research and taking a close look at the cultural and educational scene here — schools, universities, museums, venues, events, all of it. It quickly became clear that in recent years, new segments of education have been growing rapidly, especially higher education in creative and liberal arts. We realised that what we want to create fits perfectly into this new wave.
So, who are we building this for? For the creative community, both expats and locals.
— So, let’s talk about the curriculum. Who designed it, and why is it structured this way?
— The curriculum was developed based on the best practices of Moscow Music School and the University of Hertfordshire, which was previously our partner for bachelor’s degrees in Music Production and Technology. Building on this experience, we created an entirely new curriculum, designed by instructional designer Natalia Barmina, who has extensive expertise in EdTech. Our goal was to combine the strengths of our previous projects with cutting-edge instructional design methodologies from the EdTech field.
This year, we are launching only professional development programmes, with different durations: 9 months (a full academic year), 6 months, and 3 months.
The three-month courses are like intensive express courses, each focused on a specific practical skill you can master from scratch — whether it is software, a musical instrument, songwriting, vocals, or mixing.
Regarding the six- and nine-month programmes, there will be a total of five tracks. Three of them are for creatives: Music Production & DJ, Music Production & Singing-Songwriting, and Music Production & Music Performance. As you can see, we combine music production with every creative pathway. In my experience with the Moscow Music School, even if you see yourself purely as an artist or performer, in 2025 basic production skills are absolutely essential. Without them, even simple tasks can become a real challenge.
The other two tracks are non-creative: one in audio engineering, and the other in management — “music industry.” The last one is designed for future music managers: people working with artists, releases, and launching creative projects. It will include beginner-level courses in management, marketing, the music industry, and A&R (artist and repertoire).
The nine-month programmes are much more in-depth — they are twice as comprehensive as the six-month tracks, with exactly double the hours and a broader range of subjects. They are also geared towards getting you career-ready, so you will find courses like sound design, music composition and arranging, plus dedicated modules for building your portfolio and preparing your graduation project, which always has to be released.
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Photo: Fedya Ro

— Now, an important question about the teaching staff. From what I see these days, it is getting harder to find teachers who are truly passionate about what they do, who aren’t burned out, and who can actually inspire others with their enthusiasm. Have you managed to find people like that? Who are they, and how did you go about looking?
— For us, it is all about working with practitioners, not just formal educators. Often, these are people who never set out to teach, but are genuinely great at it — they have real motivation and the desire to share their experience.
We specifically seek out people who are passionate about what they do, not just those who got a music degree because they had to, and then went into teaching for lack of a better option. We look for teachers who are eager to share their expertise, whose eyes truly light up when they talk about their work. Our goal is to create an environment where students feel comfortable learning, and that is only possible with this kind of teacher.
Another important point: for now, we are not looking to bring in specialists from abroad. We want to build our team from local music scene enthusiasts, and luckily, there are great specialists based in Dubai. Of course, we will occasionally invite international guests for special events, to have that spirit of global exchange.
I can't share the names just yet, but we are currently in talks with what we believe are important figures in Dubai’s music scene and industry. We will be announcing all of our programme leaders very soon.
All in all, our teaching team will be about 10–15 people: five programme leaders and subject teachers, plus invited specialists for specific topics.
— How much does it all cost?
— The three-month short courses are AED 4,000. The six-month comprehensive programmes are AED 15,000, and the nine-month professional programmes are AED 28,100.
The bachelor’s degree, when we launch it in the future, will be more expensive, closer to standard higher education prices.
— Since you mentioned the bachelor’s degree — tell us more about Digital Renaissance’s future plans. What is next?
— Right now, our main goal is to have a strong launch: set everything up, fine-tune the details, experiment a bit, and make sure we have a successful start.
The next big step is to launch a bachelor’s programme. Ideally, we would partner with a British university.
After that, we want to expand into new areas. We are starting with music, but eventually we would love to grow into other creative fields — architecture, design, cinema, theatre, video games, and visual arts. That is the vision. First, we will get the initial stage right — and then keep building from there.
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Recording Studio: Control Room (visualisation). Interior design by AccentDG — Elie Abs

— What does your space look like? Can you give me a little virtual tour?
— Our campus is going to be based in Dubai Knowledge Park. We will have six dedicated areas: a production classroom, a rehearsal classroom, our main office, a recording studio, a production lab with three small booths for students to work on their projects, and a multipurpose space that will mostly be used for lectures, but will be eventually turned into a venue for student concerts, public lectures and other events.
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Multipurpose Room (visualisation). Interior design by AccentDG — Elie Abs

By the way, the design is being done by Accent DG — an architecture and design firm from Beirut, the same team that did Electric Pawn Shop in Dubai.
— Wow, I love how you support local talent in every part of what you do. And your website looks awesome!
— We actually got our branding from a studio in Cairo — 40MUSTAQEL. They have done visuals for SOLE Dxb, the UAE Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Cinema Akil at 25Hours and Alserkal Avenue. They are super creative and authentic with calligraphy and Arabic typography, and they have got style.
Supporting local creatives is huge for us. There is so much talent around, and we really want people to feel comfortable bringing their own backgrounds and stories to the table.
The idea is that whether you are from the UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, India, the Philippines, or anywhere else, you can learn the international language of popular music and technologies — but still keep your individuality and tell your own story.
What we would love to see is graduates from our school making projects like Saint Levant or Hanumankind. It really feels like the wave of “global” Western culture has already passed. Now it is time for new stories — from cultures the world doesn’t know enough about yet: from the Arab world, modern desi music, Bollywood, and beyond. Part of our mission is to help those stories go global, to create a sort of “strike back” in the world’s cultural landscape.
That is why we work with local talent — people who aren’t afraid to experiment with calligraphy, typography, or music, and put their own culture into what they do. The world should see and value that. We want artists like Saint Levant and Hanumankind to be in demand everywhere — and for new names to pop up, ones we haven’t even heard of yet.
And that is also why we don’t just bring in teachers from the UK or anywhere else to do everything by the book. It is really important for us to build our team here, to create something real and unique, not just another copy of what everyone else is doing.
Want to know even more about the programme? More about the teachers? Stay in the loop about big institute events (including the opening date)? And get an invite to admission interviews? Just hop on the waitlist.