This programme is for advanced students with exceptional aptitude in their specialism, and strong professional and artistic ambitions. It provides specialist, professional training if you are looking to embark on a national and international career.

The Artist Diploma represents post-Masters progression, and is designed to meet the specialised needs and aspirations of outstanding performance students, and to support them with the competence and sensitivity required.

Get ready for an exhilarating and challenging journey to prepare you for life as an independent, creative professional actor.

You’ll be encouraged to take an independent and imaginative approach to the craft, as you build a full range of relevant movement, voice, musical and acting skills.

The skills you’ll learn will draw on the latest developments in the industry, enhanced by your teachers’ knowledge and experience and supported by the advanced performance technologies which we have in our cutting-edge facilities.

The Ensemble is at the heart of how we’ll train you. Drama is a collaborative art form and we place great emphasis on the individual’s responsibility to the group and the group’s responsibility to the individual. This creates an atmosphere of mutual respect where creativity can flourish.

You’ll gain confidence during your training, learning that an authentic and enthusiastic approach is the best preparation for a life in a dynamic profession. You’ll learn how to meet challenges head-on from the new knowledge and skills you’ll develop in your training.

In association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

This Masters programme allows composers and writers to focus on how new opera is created, developed and performed. Part of an exciting partnership between Guildhall School and the Royal Opera House, the programme centres around the creation of a 25-minute chamber opera which is fully staged in Milton Court Studio Theatre.

The programme admits three composers and three writers each year. During an initial induction module, students pair up into composer-writer teams. Each team develops a short opera scene, before going on to create full chamber operas. Two smaller projects allow you to follow your own creative pathway: in poetry, prose, dramatic or film script (writers), and in vocal or instrumental/ electronic works (composers).

The programme focuses on the collaborative nature of opera making, and each composerwriter team is supported by collaborative mentoring. Students also take part in one-to-one tutorials, production seminars and creative development workshops.

Led by Julian Philips, Head of Composition, Stephen Plaice, Writer-in-Residence, and Laura Bowler, composition professor, teaching is enriched through regular seminars with visiting professionals from the opera world including conductors and directors, singers and instrumentalists, designers and stage managers.

The programme collaborates closely with Guildhall’s award-winning Opera Department, led by Dominic Wheeler, with Guildhall opera singers forming the cast for the chamber operas created by composer-writer teams.

Practical experience of opera during the year is hugely augmented by the programme’s association with the Royal Opera House, which provides opportunities to see productions in rehearsal and performance, and to meet and network with key resident and visiting practitioners.

We want you to be a multi-skilled practitioner able to work in all areas of sound to build a sustained career in the audio industry. This course develops your skills in recorded sound, live sound and post-production.
We teach you why as well as how, so that you have a strong theoretical base to draw on and help you be adaptable to change. You learn and practice using industry-standard equipment in our studios and performance spaces (24/7 access to our studios during term-time).

Through projects with students on performance and making performance possible courses, you develop essential interpersonal and collaborative skills.

The Masters in Music Therapy aims to develop students’ musicianship and personal potential, and equip them with the knowledge and skills to work as a registered music therapist.

On this programme, students gain experience working with adults and children alongside qualified music therapists on placements in a variety of settings including special and mainstream schools, and with people who experience:

- Mental health problems
- Dementia
- Learning disabilities
- School exclusion
- Communication delay
- Autism
- Acquired brain injury or stroke
- Social, emotional and behavioural difficulties
During the programme, students must undertake a minimum of 40 hours of individual personal therapy as a requirement from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). This is an additional cost not covered by the tuition fees (funding support is available - see our Postgraduate Funding page for more information).

We want to ensure you become who you want to be musically and can make your living working with music. The course helps you develop your skills in popular, contemporary and commercial music and equips you with the essential business skills to succeed. You’ll develop a broad range of skills across performance, songwriting and the production of song demos.
You get your music in front of an audience through frequent gig nights, regular festivals and industry showcases. Aside from the business, you also learn how to match your music with an audience. You can collaborate with students from other courses, for example: recorded and live sound, lighting design and management students.

A one-year Masters programme aims to bring together early-career theatre practitioners to develop new theatre and performance work.

Please note, this programme is undergoing periodic review during the 2022-23 academic year and is therefore subject to change.

This one-year Masters programme aims to bring together early-career theatre practitioners to develop new theatre and performance work. These practitioners include:

- Designers
- Sound Designers
- Lighting Designers
- Production Managers
- Stage Managers
- Video Designers
- Directors
- Writers
- All-round theatre-makers

Students work together in creative teams on an exciting and varied array of theatre projects. The programme is not intended to deliver core technical skills, but rather to develop your theatre making abilities, exploring your potential as a creative artist and enabling you to work with other students on a series of collaborative projects.

We want to strengthen your music skills in musicianship, music writing and producing music.
This means you’re able to build on your existing music skills while developing a working knowledge of songwriting and music production. You also receive one-to-one tuition in a chosen instrument (or voice). The course shares many modules and activities with our foundation year for BA (Hons) Music (Songwriting & Performance), so you learn alongside a wide group of musicians, which benefits you for ensemble work.

The Production Arts programme at Guildhall School equips you with the skills you need to enter the theatre and related industries. We strongly believe that your training should be tailored to your individual career aims. For this reason, you will select one of four pathways, each with a different emphasis:

-Stage Management
-Costume
-Theatre Technology (Sound, Lighting, Video, Automation and Stage Technology)
-Design Realisation (Scenic Art, Scenic Construction and Prop Making)

These pathways are each supported by a first year of broad-based study covering the theory and practice of theatre production. As well as working on public productions you will get the opportunity to learn about the contemporary theatre scene and the history behind it, Health and Safety legislation, specialist software applications, stage craft, period style and much more. You will also work in small groups on project work designed to enhance your learning. Your second year is spent almost entirely on productions, developing your skills within your chosen pathway with a programme of study designed to suit your personal aims. The third year gives you the opportunity to lead and run the School productions working alongside the professional creative team. This provides you with true exposure to professional theatre and the opportunity to make contacts that will be useful to your future career. In this year you also undertake a work placement with a professional company or practitioner.

We want you to learn, grow and succeed as managers in the music, theatre and entertainment industries.
In your first year, you develop a deep understanding of business, management, marketing and how to apply these skills in the theatre, entertainment and music industries. During second year, you start to specialise by taking on work which reflects your own personal career ambitions. You produce and deliver significant commercial events and products. You also gain experience of managing people and projects. We teach you how the contemporary global entertainment industry works and enhance your understanding of how digital software enables theatre, music and events managers to succeed. In your third year, you go on an industry placement and experience the front-line realities of business. Then, in your final term, we help you to bring all of this learning together so that you are fully prepared for the start of the rest of your entertainment, music and theatre industry career.