Our Graduate Diploma Programme is ideal for instrumentalists, vocalists and composers who have gained a degree and want to deepen their skills before undertaking postgraduate study.

During the programme you will hone your skills as an artist through one‑to-one Principal Study lessons, group tuition and experience playing as a soloist and in ensembles. We will encourage you to develop skills for lifelong learning by building working relationships with other students.

This is a graduate programme aimed at students considering entry to postgraduate study at a conservatoire or university who do not currently meet the required standard. The programme enhances musicianship skills to bring students to the level needed to enter a postgraduate music degree.

We also offer an International Graduate Diploma in Music and English for international students who wish to improve their English language skills alongside their musicianship skills. You can find out more on the International Graduate Diploma: Music and English course page.

The MA in Music Education and Performance is designed for any student wishing to pursue an active career as both a professional musician and a teacher or educator. It aims to equip you with the necessary musical skills, insight and experience required by the contemporary profession in its widest sense, with a focus on the artist in educational settings, from instrumental and/or vocal teaching to workshop leading.

This programme can be taken on a full-time intensive basis for four terms (15 months, Sept 2021 – Dec 2022) or on a part-time basis over seven terms (27 months, Sept 2021 – Dec 2023). The programme is auditioned and accepts students in composition and classical or jazz performance. Teacher-artists in other genres will be more suited to the Teaching Musician Programme, which shares some modules with the MA MEP.

Are you ambitious, enthusiastic and passionate about Performing Arts?

On this course, you will develop your creativity and improve your skills as an actor, dancer and singer. Taking part in a variety of exciting projects, you will explore creative ideas and processes, developing your communication, analytical and problem-solving skills. Throughout this course you will be supported to expand your knowledge, extend your skills and explore areas that interest you.

Delivered in conjunction with our partner organisations: Siobhan Davies Dance and Independent Dance, the Dance Professional Practice enables experienced practitioners to develop their artistic practice in a stimulating environment of intellectual and creative inquiry.

We support mid-career artists to:

- reflect on their body of professional experience and its role in their ongoing learning
- engage in intensive studio-based experiences with significant artists and a skilled peer group
- deepen their own practice as performers/makers
- develop their understanding of a range of research methodologies within the arts

and pursue their own area of artistic interest.

Explore your skills and expertise as a musician, performer and artist and gain some technical rehearsal skills using various performance and production equipment. You'll play gigs, rehearse, develop musicianship skills and start to think about the sound mix at live events to help develop and demonstrate your practical abilities. You'll develop your skills in working with students and fellow artists and performers and start to pick up what it takes to get into the music industry. You'll even start working on your own blog and performance portfolio to help share with the industry, the skills you are gaining.

The Master of Music (MMus) programme is designed for students wishing to be professional musicians: performers and composers. It aims to equip students with the necessary musical skills, insight and and experience required by the contemporary profession in its widest sense but with a focus on the Western Classical and Jazz traditions.

Our named Awards: Collaborative Piano, Composition, Ensemble Artistry, Jazz, Performance and Performer-Composer each offer comprehensive specialist training pathways. (Find out more in Course Details).

Key Features

- Provides advanced musical training at postgraduate level which encourages the demonstration of individual musical talent and scholarship.
- Enables musicians of proven ability, and with the potential for further training, to advance and refine their skills and specialism/s and deepen their professional expertise.
- Acknowledges the significance of musical context, highlighting the relationship of music to wider artistic, historical, philosophical, cultural and/or social practices, issues and/or phenomena.
- Cultivates musicians who have the ability to work in a variety of complex musical groupings and to exercise leadership in professional practice.
- Creates an environment which encourages risk and nurtures creativity and innovation, reflecting cutting-edge thinking within the profession.
- Produces enterprising, entrepreneurial musicians equipped both for today’s diverse, internationalised and ever-changing music profession.
- Explores the application of artistic research within a clearly defined are of music.

Are you an aspiring musician, singer, music producer or DJ? On this course, you will improve your rehearsal, performance skills and production skills to give you the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills need to progress in the music industry today.

During the course, you will take part in a variety of live performances, this will give you the opportunity to develop your musicianship and to build your ensemble skills, improving your communication, analytical, time management and problem-solving skills. You will also work in the studio, mac suites and synth lab to develop skills in recording, mixing, electronic composition and sampling as well as gaining experience of live sound engineering. There will be an emphasis on music theory and on understanding the features and roots of both popular and electronic music.

The BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre is a high-calibre vocational programme which will equip you for a career in the professional entertainment industry.

The BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre is a high-calibre vocational programme which will equip you for a career in the professional entertainment industry. The three-year programme offers intensive specialist training in dance, singing and acting, aiming to provide you with excellent employment skills. Upon graduation, employment may include musicals (West End and touring), dance companies, television, theatre and education.

After the first year you undertake your studies within a more focused specialist track: triple threat training, singer/acting focus or a more dance-based track. This allows you to choose a direction of study in the second and third year that is in line with your skills, abilities and likely destination.

This BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre is validated by the University of Birmingham.

The Course:
- Full-time, delivered over three years
- High contact hours
- Vocational and academic studies
- Practical skills including dance, singing and acting
- Variety of performance opportunities including musicals and showcase
- Small class sizes to ensure effective individual learning
- Greater understanding of cultural and historical developments through academic study and research projects
- Offers opportunities to be creative through guided choreography projects
- Career guidance and industry advice opportunities
- Opportunity to be seen by a range of industry professionals prior to graduation

The performing arts industry is a creative and exciting one but is also extremely competitive.

This Performing Arts Diploma, (equivalent to 2 ‘A’ levels) has been developed to prepare you not only to perform on stage but also focuses on the skills, knowledge and understanding that today’s universities and employers demand. You will develop technical and performance skills as well as the theoretical knowledge and understanding to underpin these skills. You will gain an understanding of how different businesses and organisations in the performing arts field work and understand the variety of opportunities that are available to you. The course will enable you to develop strategies, attitudes and survival skills for sustaining a career in the performing arts industry.