Studying music in uk Options

[owainsutton]

Another thing the OP might find helpful is googling 'uk university music rankings'. There's numerous leagues tables, in particular ones by newspapers such as the Guardian and the Times, which attempt to quantify the quality of individual departments through formulas including things such as student satisfaction, research profile, graduate employment prospects and so forth. They vary widely, depending on exactly how they're put together, but do help provide some kind of picture of which are worth considering.

[violingeek]

Yes, I do know that at Grade 5, I have a lot more to work on before I get to study music and I do know how competitive it is to get into a conservatoire. Hopefully in 2 years time, I would have finished my grade 8, leaving me an extra year to work on other repertoire and also to prepare for auditions. I know the top conservatoires are out of the picture so am looking at either Birmingham Conservatoire or Leeds College of Music. I will also be applying to a few unis as well and just wanted to know what the academic requirements are like. I'm currently doing a diploma with a GPA of about 3.0 out of 4.0, basically a B average student. I think universities like Manchester are probably out for me, so am just looking for a place who's ok with taking in mature students and has a decent reputation. In terms of what I would like to do, I would probably end up teaching music but I do hope to do a little performing on the side. I love classical music but I would also like to be able to perform jazz or pop music as well, so that's why I'm quite interested in Leeds. I do have to say a thank you to everyone who has posted here though, I really appreciate all the help you've given me since I don't know much about studying in uk. Oh and btw, I'm a girl.

[owainsutton]

For information on typical requirements for foreign qualifications, get in touch with universities directly. You'll normally find there's a member of staff within the music department responsible for undergraduate admissions, so email them directly to ask, giving full details of exactly what diploma you're studying.

By the way, on digging around for information that might be of help, I noticed that Leeds University has expanded its Music Performance course, including a year studying abroad. Definitely worth taking a look at.

[jod]

Manchester is one of the top unis for music and you need AAA or AAB to get in.

That is what it says 'for the average candidate'. Of course once a senior lecturer has heard you play, and has given you and interview, your offer may be lower. It all depends how much they want you.

Manchester has an excellent reputation, as does Leeds. Each course varies, and they suit different students.

It is worth shopping around and visiting open days. The advantages of the ones along the M62 corridor is that they do draw their teaching staff from the Orchestras and other departments along that corridor too. Hence there'll be staff teaching at the RNCM, Hudds, Manchester and Leeds who also play in the BBC Phil or the Halle or Opera North. It is great to have that level of performance experience in your main instrumental teacher even if it does mean lessons miss the odd week. Some staff are institution specific, some also teach at Chets some teach at one or two, but not the others (I'm talking about the part-time staff not the full time staff) Sometimes they can make arrangements to visit each other for specific tutors.

I've not known conservertoire staff expect anything less of uni students studying performance as a major subject area, and they don't tend to give 1st study second subject performers much slack either when they are acting as an external examiner. They have exacting standards. Yhey need to

[MNW]

Do you think this really happens at Manchester Jod? I'd be interested to know because I've known kids to be offered organ/choral scholarships at Oxbridge but when they've not obtained the minimum level they have not been able to enter. It would be good to think some uni's were more open-minded.

[Dulcet]

Do you think this really happens at Manchester Jod? I'd be interested to know because I've known kids to be offered organ/choral scholarships at Oxbridge but when they've not obtained the minimum level they have not been able to enter. It would be good to think some uni's were more open-minded.

But MNW, the standard Oxford and Cambridge offer is 2 Es, which was the minimum criterion way back when, and if you don't get those two Es you really aren't capable of doing a degree!!*

*talking about ppl who go straight from school to university - I am sure there are lots of people who don't have two A levels who are capable of doing a degree but if you've spent 7 years at secondary school and don't succeed in passing A levels you probably shouldn't be looking at further academic study...

And Oxford and Cambridge (hate the Oxbridge thing) are not conservatoires, they are academic institutions, and certainly in my day it was accepted that you couldn't be an organ scholar or choral scholar if you were reading medicine (and possibly science as well) as it would interfere too much with your studies. While there are some very proficient performers who study music as an academic discipline, and some truly outstanding ones too, there is certainly not a 1:1 correlation.

[MNW]

The applicants were turned down for music though even though they'd been offered scholarships because they failed to get the acceptable grades. Maybe they had to turn them down because it would have looked like nepotism if they'd been allowed to enter without the standard requirement. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[jod]

The applicants were turned down for music though even though they'd been offered scholarships because they failed to get the acceptable grades. Maybe they had to turn them down because it would have looked like nepotism if they'd been allowed to enter without the standard requirement. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

I certainly do think it happens at Manchester. I know it happens at Cambridge as I know people who interview at Cambridge.

I have known people who interview at Cambridge all my life.

[owainsutton]

It is worth shopping around and visiting open days. The advantages of the ones along the M62 corridor is that they do draw their teaching staff from the Orchestras and other departments along that corridor too. Hence there'll be staff teaching at the RNCM, Hudds, Manchester and Leeds who also play in the BBC Phil or the Halle or Opera North. It is great to have that level of performance experience in your main instrumental teacher even if it does mean lessons miss the odd week. Some staff are institution specific, some also teach at Chets some teach at one or two, but not the others (I'm talking about the part-time staff not the full time staff) Sometimes they can make arrangements to visit each other for specific tutors.

I've not known conservertoire staff expect anything less of uni students studying performance as a major subject area, and they don't tend to give 1st study second subject performers much slack either when they are acting as an external examiner. They have exacting standards. Yhey need to

As a Manchester graduate, I fully endorse what you say about the quality of teachers, but cannot agree that the standard of performance is anything like conservatoire level. Three years of study where performance is worth at most about 30% of your degree comparable to four years of almost complete performance focus? No way.

Anecdote time: One student at the university, who was getting too big-headed due to the fact she was performing the Sibelius concerto, sought my teacher's advice about what her post-graduation plans should be in order to pursue a performing career. The answer was "Go to college, like everyone else". On questioning this, she was told "You do realise every fourth-year violinist could play the Sibelius standing on their head?"...ouch...

[jod]

It is worth shopping around and visiting open days. The advantages of the ones along the M62 corridor is that they do draw their teaching staff from the Orchestras and other departments along that corridor too. Hence there'll be staff teaching at the RNCM, Hudds, Manchester and Leeds who also play in the BBC Phil or the Halle or Opera North. It is great to have that level of performance experience in your main instrumental teacher even if it does mean lessons miss the odd week. Some staff are institution specific, some also teach at Chets some teach at one or two, but not the others (I'm talking about the part-time staff not the full time staff) Sometimes they can make arrangements to visit each other for specific tutors.

I've not known conservertoire staff expect anything less of uni students studying performance as a major subject area, and they don't tend to give 1st study second subject performers much slack either when they are acting as an external examiner. They have exacting standards. Yhey need to

As a Manchester graduate, I fully endorse what you say about the quality of teachers, but cannot agree that the standard of performance is anything like conservatoire level. Three years of study where performance is worth at most about 30% of your degree comparable to four years of almost complete performance focus? No way.

Anecdote time: One student at the university, who was getting too big-headed due to the fact she was performing the Sibelius concerto, sought my teacher's advice about what her post-graduation plans should be in order to pursue a performing career. The answer was "Go to college, like everyone else". On questioning this, she was told "You do realise every fourth-year violinist could play the Sibelius standing on their head?"...ouch...

Ouch indeed.

The people who went on to study post-grad performance at the RCM and RNCM certainly had an initial shock! They had to work. There were people who were better than them. I remember one soprano whose nose was decidedly out of joint because she was no longer Queen B in the department, and a Mezzo who ended up doing very nicely as she had a good work ethic and got on with everyone. The Mezzo is enjoying a good career, and still gets on with everyone.

[Dulcet]

The applicants were turned down for music though even though they'd been offered scholarships because they failed to get the acceptable grades. Maybe they had to turn them down because it would have looked like nepotism if they'd been allowed to enter without the standard requirement. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

I think it makes perfect sense, as I said. If you can't pass two a levels, then university isn't the place for you! The choral/organ scholarships are only based on that one element (and they're worth three parts of ****all anyway, it's only a prestige thing) which is a long way from the most important!

It is worth shopping around and visiting open days. The advantages of the ones along the M62 corridor is that they do draw their teaching staff from the Orchestras and other departments along that corridor too. Hence there'll be staff teaching at the RNCM, Hudds, Manchester and Leeds who also play in the BBC Phil or the Halle or Opera North. It is great to have that level of performance experience in your main instrumental teacher even if it does mean lessons miss the odd week. Some staff are institution specific, some also teach at Chets some teach at one or two, but not the others (I'm talking about the part-time staff not the full time staff) Sometimes they can make arrangements to visit each other for specific tutors.

I've not known conservertoire staff expect anything less of uni students studying performance as a major subject area, and they don't tend to give 1st study second subject performers much slack either when they are acting as an external examiner. They have exacting standards. Yhey need to

As a Manchester graduate, I fully endorse what you say about the quality of teachers, but cannot agree that the standard of performance is anything like conservatoire level. Three years of study where performance is worth at most about 30% of your degree comparable to four years of almost complete performance focus? No way.

Anecdote time: One student at the university, who was getting too big-headed due to the fact she was performing the Sibelius concerto, sought my teacher's advice about what her post-graduation plans should be in order to pursue a performing career. The answer was "Go to college, like everyone else". On questioning this, she was told "You do realise every fourth-year violinist could play the Sibelius standing on their head?"...ouch...

Ouch indeed.

The people who went on to study post-grad performance at the RCM and RNCM certainly had an initial shock! They had to work. There were people who were better than them. I remember one soprano whose nose was decidedly out of joint because she was no longer Queen B in the department, and a Mezzo who ended up doing very nicely as she had a good work ethic and got on with everyone. The Mezzo is enjoying a good career, and still gets on with everyone.

Manchester used (I'm talking a LONG time ago now, more than 30 years) to offer a combined course between the University and the RNCM which would give you at the end of it a BMus AND a conservertoire output. I don't think anyone ever got accepted onto it... you'd probably have had to have given up eating and sleeping!! That really puts in perspective the difference between a university education and the role of the conservatoire. If they were much the same thing, that joint course wouldn't have been considered necessary.

[sbhoa]

Manchester used (I'm talking a LONG time ago now, more than 30 years) to offer a combined course between the University and the RNCM which would give you at the end of it a BMus AND a conservertoire output. I don't think anyone ever got accepted onto it... you'd probably have had to have given up eating and sleeping!! That really puts in perspective the difference between a university education and the role of the conservatoire. If they were much the same thing, that joint course wouldn't have been considered necessary.

I think they still do.
My clarinet teacher was on that not THAT many years ago.

[MNW]

Just to be clear though, it wasn't two E's but three A's that was required.

[Roseau]

Manchester used (I'm talking a LONG time ago now, more than 30 years) to offer a combined course between the University and the RNCM which would give you at the end of it a BMus AND a conservertoire output. I don't think anyone ever got accepted onto it... you'd probably have had to have given up eating and sleeping!! That really puts in perspective the difference between a university education and the role of the conservatoire. If they were much the same thing, that joint course wouldn't have been considered necessary.

I think they still do.
My clarinet teacher was on that not THAT many years ago.

It still exists and is very hard to get into. I know someone who didn't even get an audition (candidates have to send in a video with their application) for the joint course but got an audition/interview and was then offered a place at both Manchester and Oxford Universities.

[jod]

Just to be clear though, it wasn't two E's but three A's that was required.

Look, Maths tripos, friend of the family who interviewed for one of the colleges would give a low offer for the students he really wanted.

Divinity Tripos, Standard offer 3 As. Again family friend, If he wanted someone would give an offer of 2 Es.

Music Tripos , Friend of my School Music Teacher conditional Offer: 2 Es.

All Cambridge University. All Genuine Offers. If they really want you, they give you a low offer. If they think you'll fit in, but your as good as the rest, you'll get a standard offer.