Hi,

I'm coming to make my final five unis to apply to to study music. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? I'm a violinist with basic keyboard skills but I'd like to study somewhere with a strong focus on composition.

Thanks

I've been looking at unis a lot too. What ideas have you got at the moment? I know Bristol has a strong focus on composition (but that's not what I want!) and as I live here I can honestly say it's a lovely place to live. Cardiff is good too (which is my first choice) and I think you can do a lot of composition work if you choose to. I'd be interested to hear what you think of different unis as I'm having trouble deciding.

At the moment I have Cambridge, Kings College London and Manchester (possibly joint course). I'd also like to go somewhere where I can keep up my languages which I know the first two cater for. I'm also going to look at York and Birmingham.

If you like York check out the University of Surrey. We have a brilliant composition department led by a fantastic bloke called Steve Goss. The uni runs several composition competitions throughout the year and has a good graduate record with a large number of alumni currently working as orchestrators for current film composers. The composition department seems to favour the more contemporary style of composition in my opinion but are very supportive of all styles.
I just spent a month in Edinburgh playing for a musical written by a composer in my year at uni and without encouragement and support from the department we definitely wouldn't have obtained the sponsorship we needed to take us up to Scotland.

Another plus is that you can study languages for free! They do beginner, intermediate and advanced classes in about 12 different lanuages and you get a formal qualification at the end.

Ooh I'm the opposite...
I want a course that is more performance based. i'm applying to CUKAS- but I need a back up plan!

if you want a back up option for cukas, the best one i found is Leeds uni music performance course.....you spend a year abroad in a conservatoire....awesome!
i got on it last year but decided to have another crack at conservatoires this year! but im applying to it again!

Manchester's also good for performance, even if you don't apply for the joint course with RNCM. I took the straight Manchester degree and 1/3 of my degree was in performance. Good luck with making decisions everyone!