This flexible programme will allow you to expand your repertoire and hone your skills as a performer; whilst you can focus entirely upon performance-based modules if you prefer, there are also options in other areas of musical study should you wish to explore those. This 120-credit programme is a smaller version of the 180-credit MMus Performance programme, and can be studied over 1 year full time, or 2 years part time.
You’ll work with our experienced and talented specialist teachers to develop your repertoire. You’ll learn to interpret music sensitively, injecting your own personality without neglecting the historical style of each work. Not only will you perform regularly throughout the year, but you’ll work towards your own recitals and work on your own solo or ensemble project.
To put your performance into context, you’ll also have a choice of optional modules offered across the School of Music to explore how performance can shape and be shaped by other forms of musical research and practice.
We have a variety of excellent facilities to support your learning, including rehearsal, performance and practice spaces, a lab for studying the psychology of music and studios for sound recording, software development and computer music composition. We also have good working relationships with a range of prestigious arts organisations: we host BBC Radio 3 concerts, Leeds Lieder and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, as well as enjoying a close partnership with Opera North and many others in a city with a thriving music and cultural scene.
Alternatively, you could choose to study for an MMus Performance qualification over 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time.
The performance modules will allow you to develop your performance skills in different contexts. Supported by instrumental or vocal lessons with a specialist teacher, you’ll take part in regular performance classes to develop your repertoire.
As well as the potential to focus on a single concerto, song-cycle or extended work of 20-30 minutes, you can prepare for a final recital of 40-50 minutes that you will perform near the end of the programme. Applied Performance Studies will allow you to prepare and deliver a solo or ensemble project, and reflect upon the process in a written commentary.
You’ll also have the chance to expand your studies if you wish. The Professional Studies module builds your understanding of research methods in music, and you can also choose from optional modules offered across the School of Music, allowing you to explore musicology, composition, psychology of music, aesthetics and more.
If you choose to study part time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year.
If you opt for the MMus Performance qualification, you’ll take more modules overall.
Optional modules
You will take 120 credits of modules during your studies. You can choose 90-120 credits from the below list. Both recital modules can be chosen but these have to be done on different instruments. If you only select 90 credits from those below you’ll also take one 30-credit module from Aesthetic Theory, Composition Studies, Electronic and Computer Music Contexts, Electronic and Computer Music Practice, Editing And Archival Studies, Individual Project, Issues in Critical Musicology or Short Dissertation.
For more information on typical modules, read Performance PGDip Full Time in the course catalogue
For more information on typical modules, read Performance PGDip Part Time in the course catalogue
You’ll take instrumental and vocal lessons with our specialist teachers. However, lessons can be organised with teachers from the surrounding area such as Opera North and the Royal Northern College of Music by individual arrangement.
Read about our instrumental and vocal teachers on our opportunities page.
You’ll also attend seminars and tutorials. However, independent study is crucial, allowing you to hone your skills and explore your own creative approaches to performance.
Your performances will largely be assessed through your recitals, and you’ll also submit programme notes for each recital that you complete. Depending upon your module choices, other modules may also assess you on project work, bibliographical exercises, essays and presentations. Optional modules may also use specialist tasks such as compositions or critical editions.
This programme will allow you to develop as a performer, improve your musical knowledge and gain critical, research and communication skills.
Graduates have pursued a range of careers in orchestral playing, solo performance, instrumental teaching, and arts administration. Several have also pursued further study at conservatoires in the UK and abroad, or research degrees at Leeds and other institutions.
We also offer additional support as you develop your career plans: the School of Music boasts a unique Alumni Mentoring Network, where students can be supported by past students as they start to plan their next steps.
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.
This challenging programme will allow you to expand your repertoire and hone your skills as a performer, while giving you the confidence to apply critical approaches to the study of music and its performance.
You’ll work with our experienced and talented specialist teachers to develop your repertoire. You’ll learn to interpret music sensitively, injecting your own personality without neglecting the historical style of each work. Not only will you perform regularly throughout the year, but you’ll work towards your own recitals and work on your own solo or ensemble project.
To put your performance into context, you’ll also have a choice of optional modules offered across the School of Music. You could study composition, musicology, aesthetics, psychology of music and more to explore how performance can shape and be shaped by other forms of musical research and practice.
We have a variety of excellent facilities to support your learning, including rehearsal, performance and practice spaces, a lab for studying the psychology of music and studios for sound recording, software development and computer music composition. We also have good working relationships with a range of prestigious arts organisations: we host BBC Radio 3 concerts, Leeds Lieder and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, as well as enjoying a close partnership with Opera North and many others in a city with a thriving music and cultural scene.
You could also choose to study for a Postgraduate Diploma qualification over 12 months full-time or 24 months part-time.
Core modules that run throughout the year will allow you to develop your performance skills in different contexts. Supported by instrumental or vocal lessons with a specialist teacher, you’ll take part in regular performance classes to develop your repertoire.
As well as focusing on a single concerto, song-cycle or extended work of 20-30 minutes, you’ll prepare for a final recital of 40-50 minutes that you’ll perform near the end of the programme. In addition, you’ll prepare for a solo or ensemble project and reflect on the process of preparing and then giving a performance.
You’ll also have the chance to expand your studies. The core Professional Studies module will build your understanding of research methods in music to equip you with a broader range of skills. Then you’ll choose from the optional modules offered across the School of Music, allowing you to explore musicology, composition, psychology of music, aesthetics and more.
If you choose to study part-time, you’ll study over a longer period and take fewer modules in each year.
If you opt for the PGDip qualification, you’ll take fewer modules overall.
Compulsory modules
You’ll take three compulsory modules during the year. You’ll then choose at least one of Applied Performance Studies (30 credits) or Instrumental or Vocal Recital (30 credits) – if you select the latter, you’ll have to use a different instrument to your main recital module. If you only take one of these two modules, you’ll then choose one from the optional modules below.
Optional modules
For more information on typical modules, read Performance MMus Full Time in the course catalogue
For more information on typical modules, read Performance MMus Part Time in the course catalogue
You’ll take instrumental and vocal lessons with our specialist teachers. However, lessons can be organised with teachers from the surrounding area such as Opera North and the Royal Northern College of Music by individual arrangement.
Read about our instrumental and vocal teachers on our opportunities page.
You’ll also attend seminars and tutorials. However, independent study is crucial, allowing you to hone your skills and explore your own creative approaches to performance.
Your performance will largely be assessed through your recitals, and you’ll also submit programme notes for each recital you complete. Other modules may also assess you on project work, bibliographical exercises, essays and presentations. Optional modules may use specialist tasks such as compositions or critical editions.
This programme will allow you to develop as a performer, improve your musical knowledge and gain critical, research and communication skills.
Graduates have pursued a range of careers in orchestral playing, solo performance, instrumental teaching, and arts administration. Several have also pursued further study at conservatoires in the UK and abroad, or research degrees at Leeds and other institutions.
We also offer additional support as you develop your career plans: the School of Music boasts a unique Alumni Mentoring Network, where students can be supported by past students as they start to plan their next steps.
We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.
The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more at the Careers website.
Our MMus programme is distinctive in its range of musicological, compositional and performance-based elements.
You will benefit from the diversity of our research strengths, numerous ensemble performance opportunities and expertise in a range of musical fields, including contemporary music for the concert hall, popular music, film music, opera, acoustic, electronic and computer-generated music.
The Performance pathway of the MMus Music programme will develop your professional expertise on your instrument/voice within the context of the range of departmental opportunities for performance.
You will be tutored and assessed on one instrument (or voice) by visiting professionals of national and international standing who will guide you in consolidating and developing your technique, repertoire, knowledge and interpretative insight.
The two compulsory research training modules are followed by a combination of specialism-related modules and optional modules. Having completed the Postgraduate Diploma stage of the programme, you will progress to Masters stage and submit a folio of your work.
This programme is studied full-time over one academic year and part-time students must study at least two taught technical modules per academic year.
Example module listing
The following modules are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that not all modules described are compulsory and may be subject to teaching availability and/or student demand.
The School welcomes applications from students who wish to undertake one module of study from the Masters programme.
Potential applicants may make an appointment for an informal interview with the Programme Director if practicable. All applicants will be asked either to submit a sample of written work, a DVD of their performance, or samples of their compositional work, or to sit an audition depending on their chosen specialism.
Our work achieves wide international circulation, both through established scholarly channels and, distinctively, through broadcast media (such as BBC TV, Channel 4, BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and National Public Radio in the USA). School staff are much in demand for pre-concert talks at venues such as London’s South Bank and Barbican centres.
The research environment at Surrey is sustained by open discussion and debate, and through the regular airing of work-in- progress. Our work is strengthened by the ready input of our peers and research students at various stages allowing collective engagement to foster innovation.
The MMus (Performance) programme aims to provide students with a high quality education in the creative, re-creative, technical, critical, vocational and academic areas of the subject. It aims to provide students with the necessary skills, techniques and methodologies to work at an advanced level with an critical awareness of the discipline.
The programme aims to reflect current developments within the theory and practice of music performance and, in so doing, to educate students so that they may work confidently and constructively within the musical culture of the present.
The programme aims to offer the necessary preparation for students wishing to undertake doctoral level study in practice-based areas.
The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas:
Knowledge and understanding
Intellectual / cognitive skills
Professional practical skills
Key / transferable skills
We often give our students the opportunity to acquire international experience during their degrees by taking advantage of our exchange agreements with overseas universities.
In addition to the hugely enjoyable and satisfying experience, time spent abroad adds a distinctive element to your CV.
Successful entry on to this Guildford School of Acting (GSA) programme means you will be part of a carefully selected and committed ensemble of performers-in-training, equipped with the necessary self-discipline and motivation to master new skills and refine existing capabilities.
GSA is one of the UK’s leading accredited drama schools, providing dedicated conservatoire training within a purpose built environment on the University of Surrey campus.
We place a very strong emphasis on the practical acquisition of technical skills together with a dedicated focus on professional development, and provide opportunities to combine these skills into musical theatre rehearsal projects and public performances.
The programme is intensive and specifically designed to equip participants in the ‘triple-threat’ disciplines of acting, singing, dancing.
Seminars in contextual and theoretical studies are taken together with masterclasses led by industry professionals in audition technique and repertoire.
These skills are integrated through project work which includes a devised project, a final public production led by a production team of industry professionals, and a West End Showcase.
This programme is studied full-time over one academic year.
Example module listing
The following modules are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that not all modules described are compulsory and may be subject to teaching availability and/or student demand.
The programme provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, skills, qualities and other attributes in the following areas:
Knowledge and understanding
Intellectual / cognitive skills
Professional practical skills
Key / transferable skills
We often give our students the opportunity to acquire international experience during their degrees by taking advantage of our exchange agreements with overseas universities.
In addition to the hugely enjoyable and satisfying experience, time spent abroad adds a distinctive element to your CV.
In this dynamic programme you’ll build on your existing musical skills and develop a greater understanding of the theories and techniques of digital composition and performance.
A focus of the programme is bridging the gap between the musical vision and its performance. With this in mind, you will be encouraged to perform your own music in live situations and take your place at the forefront of your music’s realisation.
An emphasis is also placed on the field of digital composition within a wider context, which you will address through seminar work. You’ll learn how to plan a technological project and translate your musical ideas into interactive computer music programmes and/or scores.
Your study will take the form of weekly lectures or seminars, as well as at least 10 hours a week on project work.
You will complete six courses.
In semester 1:
In semester 2:
In addition, over the spring and summer, you will prepare a final digital composition and performance project.
Students will gain in-depth knowledge of:
As this programme involves a wide range of disciplines both technical and artistic, you will gain a number of transferable skills ranging from the core matters of composition, audio production and music programming to more indirect but highly employable skills such as research, documentation, critical thinking, oral presentation, teamwork and software development.
Our graduates have gone on to be employed as composers, performers, researchers, Cirque du Soleil sound technicians, university lecturers, software engineers, BBC sound recordists, web designers, multimedia/ video streaming engineers, and DJs.
See our alumni webpage for details of the careers of recent graduates:
