Bachelor in Music/Instrumental and Vocal Performance/Composition/Music Technology
Birmingham City University
Key Information
Campus location
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
4 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
GBP 9,250 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
Sep 2024
* UK students: £9,250 per year | international students: £24,950 per year
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Introduction
Achieve the extraordinary. Study at the conservatoire of the future.
We have invested £57 million into our impressive state-of-the-art music facilities with the aim of creating functional spaces that combine tradition with cutting-edge technology. The focus of our undergraduate music course is to help you realise your potential and become the best musician that you can be, with the support of an encouraging creative environment.
With individual specialist tuition throughout all four years of the course, you will get the individual attention you need to prepare for a successful career in the music profession. Our students benefit from the individual care and attention of our highly qualified professional team of tutors and support staff, who are dedicated to supporting and developing the potential of each student.
Students studying for our BMus degree in music apply to one of three pathways; either BMus (Hons) Performance (instrumental or vocal), BMus (Hons) Composition, or BMus (Hons) Music Technology.
What's covered in this course?
In addition to benefiting from individual tuition, you will enjoy a range of activities designed to develop your artistry, musical fluency and personal and professional awareness.
You will find yourself immersed in masterclasses and performance and composition workshops. Individual ensemble coaching and playing and teaching techniques complete the picture, helping you to become a well-rounded musician.
Top-flight singers and musicians – including baritone Roderick Williams, violinist Tasmin Little OBE, cellist Ben Davies, soprano Danielle de Niese and pianist Stephen Hough – are among musicians who have worked with and inspired our students.
Towards the end of your course, you will carry out a major project, which allows you to explore a specialism and format which matches your professional aspirations. This can be anything connected to music, from performances to business projects and dissertations to multi-media installations.
Academically, you will explore themes such as musicianship, music history and professional development. As well as getting a thorough grounding in technical and performance skills with an emphasis on harmony and aural training, you will cover topics such as education and outreach work, conducting and world music.
Why choose us?
- Our performance health programme — including performance coaching, physiotherapy, movement workshops and Alexander technique classes — allows students to develop as confident and effective performers.
- Individual specialist tuition throughout all four years of the course – far more than is typically offered by academic university music courses.
- We are recognised by the Association of European Conservatoires. All our tutors are professional musicians who bring a lifetime of musical experience and insight to their teaching.
- We have countless partnerships and long-established professional relationships with organisations including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Orchestra of the Swan and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- You will have full access to our superb £57 million facilities. These include our wonderful performance spaces: the 500-seat Bradshaw Concert Hall, the 150-seat Recital Hall, our black-box performance space known as “The Lab”, the Organ Studio, and our fabulous Eastside Jazz Club. We’ve not even mentioned our seven recording studios and more than 70 practice rooms, ensemble rooms and workshops in addition; all acoustically designed to provide a music-making environment that is absolutely world-class.
- Top 20 for Music (Guardian League Tables 2023)
Gallery
Curriculum
Year one
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete one of the following principal study modules and all the following core modules (totalling 120 credits):
- Principal Study: Performance 1
- Principal Study: Percussion 1
- Principal Study: Composition 1
- Principal Study: Music Technology 1
- Language of Music 1
- Contextual studies: Performance traditions 1
- Professional Portfolio 1: Community Engagement
Year two
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete one of the following principal study modules and all the following core modules (totalling 120 credits):
- Principal Study: Performance 2
- Principal Study: Percussion 2
- Principal Study: Composition 2
- Principal Study: Music Technology 2
- Language of Music 2
- Contextual Studies: Performance Traditions 2
- Professional Portfolio 2: Pedagogy and practice
Year three
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete one of the following Principal Study modules and all the following core modules (totalling 120 credits):
- Principal Study: Performance 3
- Principal Study: Percussion 3
- Principal Study: Composition 3
- Principal Study: Music Technology 3
- Language of Music: Specialism 1
- Contextual Studies: Specialism 1
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete at least 20 credits from the following indicative list of optional modules.
- Collaborative practice
- Live Project
- Work Placement
Core modules are guaranteed to run. Optional modules will vary from year to year and the published list is indicative only.
Year four
In Year four, all students will select a total of 120 credits which must include one module from List A (Principal Study), one module from List B (Project) at least 20 and no more than 40 credits from list C (indicative list of optional modules).
Optional modules
List A: Principal Study
- Final Recital (40): 40 credits
- Final Recital (60): 60 credits
- Final Composition Portfolio (40): 40 credits
- Final Composition Portfolio (60): 60 credits
- Final Music Technology Portfolio (40): 40 credits
- Final Music Technology Portfolio (60): 60 credits
List B: Project
- Final Project (40): 40 credits
- Final Project (60): 60 credits
- Major Project: 40 credits
List C: Options
- Further pedagogy: 20 credits
- Music, Community and Wellbeing: 20 credits
- Language of Music: Specialisms 2: 20 credits
- Contextual Studies: Specialisms 2: 20 credits
- Professional development: 20 credits
- Work Placement: 20 credits
Core modules are guaranteed to run. Optional modules will vary from year to year and the published list is indicative only.
Career Opportunities
Enhance Employability Skills
All of the UK's Conservatoires aim to do the same thing: to train students for the music profession with the emphasis firmly on your principal study, whether that is in performance, composition or music technology.
As a vocational programme, it is easy to see how all your principal-study work adds to your professional development. Yet Royal Birmingham Conservatoire believes other areas of the course are just as important: the skills in writing, research, communication and critical and reflective thinking that you develop in the academic modules are exactly the types of graduate skills that make you more employable in any area of professional life, musical or otherwise.
Team working and collaborative skills are highly valued in the profession as a whole and are particularly important in any musical context, and you will have opportunities to work as part of teams and ensembles across all areas of the course. Equally, you will have opportunities to develop your ability to work under your own direction, whether that is through the individual time spent practising, researching and writing essays and presentations, or working on personal development projects.
The course is designed so that we can guide you through these developments in the early years, give you the ability to reflect on what you have already learned and, most importantly, what you still need to learn. Taking charge of your own development as a musician enables you to work more independently in the later years and provides an employability skill set vital to your continuing professional life.
Placements
There is a variety of extracurricular schemes that take students out of the Conservatoire and into the professional world. Numerous professional engagements for students are administered through the Conservatoire’s Book a Musician service, which provides direct experience of paid professional work.
We also run a number of placement schemes. These include long-running schemes with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), the Orchestra of the Swan, and the Welsh National Opera where students participate actively or as observers; a collaboration with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) which gives composition students the opportunity to have their music played by experienced professionals who also give feedback; and many other partnerships with organisations including:
- BBC Radio 3
- Welsh National Opera
- Arco Project
- Leamington Festival
- THSH
- Birmingham Cathedral
- St Chads
- Birmingham Opera Company
- Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra
- Dudley Arts
- Heartlands Hospital
- Birmingham Music Service
- Birmingham Royal Ballet
- Jazzlines
- Town Hall Symphony Hall
and for pedagogy/education-specific projects:
- Music in Hospitals and Care
- Air Arts, Derby Royal Hospital
- Birmingham Children's Hospital
- Elmhurst Ballet School
- Services for Education Music Service
- Sandwell Music Service
- Warwick School
- Calthorpe Academy
- In Harmony