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.

There is an ever-increasing demand for performers who combine first-rate acting ability with a high level of musicianship.

Mountview’s Actor Musician course develops these dual skills to the highest level, creating graduates who combine skills in acting and music in their professional lives.

Whilst a high level of prior musical experience is a pre-requisite, it is not necessary to have achieved formal music qualifications.

There are limited places available each year and students are taught in small groups. Teaching mirrors Mountview’s actor training but with specialised music elements and you’ll receive over 30 hours of direct teaching time each week including one-to-one singing and instrumental lessons.

The course develops technical skills through workshops and performance opportunities. During the course you’ll engage in a range of actor musician projects, working on Shakespeare, contemporary plays, and musicals as well as devising original work. Students engage with a range of classic and contemporary texts for example If You Don’t Let Us Dram, We Won’t Let You Sleep by Anders Lustgarten, Colder Than Here by Laura Wade, His Dark Materials adaptation by Nicholas Wright, Flora the Red Menace by George Abbott, Kander and Ebb, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris by Mort Shuman and Eric Blau.

Study takes place over three 12-week terms a year.

The first half of each term is devoted to skills classes whilst in the second half of each term you will work on performance projects which are presented in-house to fellow students and staff.

In the second year you apply your skills in collaboration classes which include peer integration and team teaching to enhance your creativity and help you to make connections between subjects. Additionally, there is time given to tailored ‘surgeries’ to focus on detail and help you to develop your independence and confidence in your practice.

You’ll also work closely with Mountview’s Industry Liaison Manager to understand and prepare for life as a working actor.

The focus of the third year is film, recorded voice, public performances and reflecting on acting practice. You’ll work with professional directors to present a range of productions and an industry showcase and create a voice and film showreel. Audiences include agents, casting directors and other industry figures as well as the general public.

MOUNTVIEW’S PART TIME FOUNDATION IN MUSICAL THEATRE COVERS THE CORE ELEMENTS OF TRIPLE THREAT TRAINING: ACTING, SINGING AND DANCE.
With classes taking place three evenings per week students are able to work alongside their studies to support themselves financially. This ability to work combined with competitive course fees makes this one of the most accessible Musical Theatre Foundation courses in the UK.

The course promises a rigorous introduction to the performance skills required in the musical theatre discipline. The training is equally focussed on acting, singing and dance with a balance of 40% skills, 35% audition preparation and 25% performance-based work.

Demands on the students are high and the course will develop core technique and creativity and prepare students for further training and auditions.

The training includes a focused audition preparation module allowing students to develop technique and repertoire for future drama school auditions.

The course is taught from September to April, with 9 hours each week over three evenings.