Skip to main content

Learning and teaching

Areas of study​

The AdvPGDip is available to performers in the following disciplines:

  • All string, woodwind and brass instruments, solo, chamber or orchestral
  • Guitar and harp
  • Timpani and percussion, including marimba
  • Piano solo and ensemble, harpsichord, organ, accordion
  • Vocal performance
  • Traditional performance
  • Jazz performance

It is not available for Conducting, Composition, Historically Informed Performance Practice and Piano for Dance, and Repetiteurship.

Singers accepted onto this programme will normally work within the Department of Vocal Performance: any work with the Opera department will be exceptional and by negotiation.

Advanced Principal Study​

This core module offers regular individualised tuition in your discipline, which may be split between a number of tutors as appropriate, and offers a range of assessment options including public performances, recordings, practice research, and individual or collaborative negotiated projects. Your learning in this module will be informed by the choices you articulate within the Professional Development module, which will help you identify the areas of your practice you wish to expand and deepen: the repertoires, genres, techniques that you wish to pursue to further your individual artistic aims.

The choice of principal study teacher is made by negotiation with your Head of Department, who will seek to match your individual needs with the expertise of particular teachers. A student may if necessary be re-assigned to an alternative teacher: it may also be appropriate for your principal study to be shared between a number of teachers.

Advanced Supporting Studies​

In this module, you will have the opportunity to take part in a range of negotiated activities in support both of your individual discipline and your development as an emerging professional. This may include: performance classes; seminars, workshops and masterclasses; attendance at concerts; rehearsals; performances, solo or group, where not assessed as part of the principal study; additional study of a related instrument or instruments; and taught classes specific to the discipline/department.

What all of these learning opportunities have in common is that they look beyond your individual development as a musician. This module will give you the opportunity to work collaboratively in a widening circle of peers, potentially encompassing your colleagues within your own discipline, other musicians within the School of Music, fellow students from the Undergraduate and Research cohorts, staff and students from other Schools within the Conservatoire, and professionals from a range of disciplines both close to and far from the discipline of music.

Professional Development​

The Professional Development module invites you to articulate a critical and reflective position on your continuing studies in relation to your transition into the profession:

  • Why have you chosen further study at Masters level?
  • Which areas of your practice do you wish to expand and deepen this year: what repertoires, genres, techniques?
  • What sources of information can you draw on to support your practice?
  • What professional pathways and opportunities do you intend to explore?
  • How can you document and reflect upon your progress through the year?

Options​

Options give space within the curriculum for you to engage in studies which enhance professional versatility, by pursuing areas of interest either close to or far away from your core discipline. The choice includes modules drawn from the undergraduate programmes in the School of Music as well as Interdisciplinary and Extended Practice (IXP) modules that are collaborative with the School of Drama, Dance, Production and Film.