Music (Performance) BMus

Course overview

Our BMus Music (Performance) course is designed to provide you with a performance-intensive experience within a university environment, while supporting you to pursue other areas of musical interest should you wish to do so.

The core of the course is based around performance and related matters, which sits alongside modules drawing on musics from a range of genres, styles, cultural and social contexts, and geographic locations, to explore key concepts, theories and approaches. You’ll develop your skills as a performer and as a creative, critical and reflective thinker, gaining the tools and experience needed to be an independent worker and musician, ready for life after university. Alongside your performance specialism, you can choose optional modules from a broad range of areas – including aesthetics, analysis, contemporary composition, film music, the music business, musicology, music psychology, music technology and popular music – enabling you to shape your degree to fit your interests and ambitions.

You’ll take lessons with a visiting professional specialist, study with academics who are experts in their fields, and receive support from a dedicated technical team. Across your course, you’ll engage with the latest musical research, explore a range of theoretical, creative and practical aspects of music, and develop a set of valuable performance, wider musical and transferrable skills. You’ll have opportunities to work independently and collaboratively, using your skills and knowledge in contexts that extend beyond the university environment. All these elements combine to provide you with an exciting and dynamic educational experience that is unique to Leeds.

We are one of the largest schools of music in the country, which means you’ll benefit from the impressive range of specialisms within our curriculum, reflecting our ethos that music is music, regardless of genre or style. We attract a diverse body of students from across the UK and internationally, which gives the School a vibrant community and culture. Decolonisation, equality and inclusivity are embedded within our curriculum, so all our students can feel a sense of belonging in the School and can thrive on their course, no matter what their background and musical experience.

In the recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) exercise, 93% of our research was considered to be ‘internationally excellent’ or better in terms of its originality, significance and rigour, with 56% rated as ‘world leading’ – the highest classification. Each of these measures places us within the top 10 Schools of Music in the country based on the REF 2021 results for the subject area. Our staff expertise feeds directly into our curriculum, with specialisms including:

• Applied music psychology

• Black, popular, independent and global musical cultures

• Contemporary and experimental composition

• Electronic and computer music

• Film music

• Historical musicology

• Music analysis

• Music and wellbeing

• Music industry and management

• Music technology in theory and practice

• Musical aesthetics and postcolonialism

• Opera

• Performance and performance practice

• Practice research in music and the arts

• Science and technology studies

We work closely with our students, particularly through our active Student Staff Partnership Forum, to ensure that we offer the best possible experience to everyone studying in the School of Music. Our Industrial Advisory Board – an invited body of professionals from across the professional music sector, including several alumni – actively supports the ongoing development of our courses to ensure they deliver the skills and opportunities our students need to prepare them for life after university.

The School of Music is part of a strong musical community at the University of Leeds, and there are numerous Leeds University Union (LUU) clubs and societies that offer opportunities to get involved in music and performance activities. The Leeds University Union Music Society (LUUMS) is one of the Union’s largest societies and boasts ten ensembles including orchestras, choirs, brass and wind ensembles, and a composers’ collective. LUUMS is linked to the School of Music as our departmental society, and the School and LUUMS work closely on social events and the promotion of musical opportunities. School of Music students also often participate in other campus-based ensembles, including the Clothworkers Consort of Leeds (led by School of Music staff members) and Student Union performance societies, such as:

• The LUU Big Band

• Various musical theatre, opera and pantomime groups

• Societies focused on jazz and blues, folk, and pop music

• A cappella (unaccompanied) singing

• Electronic music and DJing

The Clothworkers Concert Hall in the School of Music hosts our diverse International Concert Series, and the Students’ Union runs regular gigs and its long-standing Friday evening club night, ‘Fruity’. Beyond the University campus, the city of Leeds provides numerous opportunities to engage with a wide variety of musics at venues including:

• Leeds First Direct Arena, a fixture on the national touring circuit for leading artists and bands

• Leeds Grand Theatre, which routinely presents touring West End musicals, comedy and other shows, and is the home of Opera North (a partner of the University) and Northern Ballet

• Leeds Playhouse, which presents a range of stage musicals and other theatrical productions, several of which then tour nationally

• Leeds Town Hall, home to the Leeds International Concert Season (LICS), which usually features a wide range of international orchestras within its programming. LICS also run various chamber music series at venues including Holy Trinity Church, Leeds Cathedral, and The Venue at Leeds Conservatoire

• O2 Academy Leeds hosts a range of popular-music events including its regular ‘Indie Thursdays’ and ‘PROJEKT’ club nights

• Seven Arts, an independent arts space and a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that presents a range of jazz, popular and light musics within its diverse programme

• The Brudenell Social Club, which hosts events most nights of the week and covers a wide range of musical genres

All these elements combine to make studying Music at the University of Leeds a distinctive and memorable experience that actively supports our students to pursue careers or future study within and beyond music.

Entry requirements

A-level: AAB. We also welcome BTEC applicants with DDD Music

If these don't include A-level Music, we would normally expect an essay/discursive subject and evidence of Musical Literacy.

Students taking the EPQ may also be made an alternative offer. This would typically be ABB + A in the EPQ for students taking A-levels, for example.

International Baccalaureate

Career opportunities

A degree in Music from the University of Leeds equips you with valuable subject knowledge, cultural and social awareness, and a strong balance of performance, wider musical and transferrable skills. We worked with our undergraduate students to identify a skillset that all our graduates will develop across their courses, and we continue to review these attributes with the student body and our Industrial Advisory Board to ensure they meet the needs of students as they leave university.

Skills such as communication, leadership, time and resource management, and the ability to work independently and collaboratively are particularly attractive to employers, and you’ll also be able to demonstrate the flexibility, resilience and confidence needed to adapt to new situations and environments. Your musical knowledge will bring your critical, creative, research and problem-solving abilities to the fore, and you’ll be able to articulate how the experience gained through your degree has prepared you for whatever comes next, be that work or further study.

Our courses equip our graduates to work in a wide range of areas within the music industry, including:

• Performing

• Composing

• Teaching, lecturing and coaching

• Arts, artist, project and event management

• PR

• Creative production

• Theatrical stage direction and musical direction

• Music supervision

• Music publishing and copyright

• Marketing and digital marketing

• Arts research

• Music therapy

Our graduates also use the skills developed through their Music degree to pursue careers in other sectors, including business, chartered surveying, data management, healthcare, law, management and media, and many progress to postgraduate study in Music or a related discipline, including continuing to Masters study here at Leeds.