Music at Cambridge
You’ll have the opportunity to study a range of topics, with a strong academic focus on:
- history
- analysis
- composition, including screen and media composition
- performance
By studying this course you'll join some of the most famous names in music who studied or taught here. They include:
- composers, like Judith Weir, Errollyn Wallen, Thomas Adès and Academy Award-winning, Steven Price
- performers, like Joanna MacGregor and Mark Padmore
- conductors, like John Eliot Gardiner and Nicholas Collon
- writers and broadcasters, like Sara Mohr-Pietsch who works for BBC Radio 3
- crossover artists, like Delia Derbyshire and Clean Bandit
Teaching and facilities
Teaching
The Faculty of Music is at the centre of a vast network of musical study, research and practice.
Our research students, lecturers and distinguished international visitors work on a variety of topics.
Our areas of special expertise include:
- medieval and renaissance music
- early modern music
- nineteenth-century music
- opera
- popular music
- ethnomusicology
- performance studies
- composition
- scientific approaches to music
Facilities
Our modern Faculty of Music is where most of your lectures, seminars and research activities will take place. The Faculty is also home to:
- West Road Concert Hall, a professional venue with 500 audience seats
- Pendlebury Library, with an extensive collection of music, books, periodicals and recordings
- recording studio, fully-equipped with a control room and a recording room
- music computing laboratories, with specialised software
Along with all other students at Cambridge, you'll also have access to:
- the impressive Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries
- libraries, practice rooms and computer suites located within our Colleges
Resources
We have a large collection of period instruments that you can use.
A Javanese Gamelan is part of our collection. This is an orchestra of bronze instruments, with keyed metallophones, gongs, drums, a wooden flute and a two-stringed fiddle.
We also host several resident ensembles that perform regularly. They provide masterclasses, coaching and further composition workshops for students.
Course costs
When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).
Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students – you can find details of these costs here.
There are no compulsory additional course costs for Music. If you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Department.
Your future career
When you graduate you'll have a variety of transferable skills that employers are looking for. You'll have the opportunity to choose from a range of different career options.
In recent years, our music graduates have gone on to successful careers in:
- publishing and the media
- academia
- arts administration
- banking
- law
- public service
- charity sector
Many of our students also go on to careers in the music profession. Recent graduates include:
- pianist Tom Poster
- Royal Harpist Anne Denholm
- composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad
- jazz musician Misha Mullov-Abbado
- record producer and audio engineer Myles Eastwood