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Ensembles

Ensembles for Orchestral Players

In addition to regular chamber music, the Academy provides comprehensive orchestral training. See p.10 for full details.

All rehearsals and other performance activities are carefully monitored to ensure that students enjoy a proper balance of studies. Students enjoy a mixture of intensive and quick-learn projects covering wide-ranging repertoire.

Ensembles for Singers

These include choirs as well as miscellaneous classes such as acting, movement, Italian song, German language and lieder, French song, English song, and opera. In Years 3 and 4 these elements are divided into two courses: Stagecraft and Opera, and the Craft of Singing in Modern European Languages.

Jazz Ensembles

Big Band and other Ensembles including workshops and combos.

Undergraduate Concerts

By agreement with their teacher, students may submit a lunchtime or early-evening concert proposal to the Concerts Department. All performances are assessed and contribute towards course units for Ensembles. There are also regular performance opportunities outside the Academy.

‘The Academy’s ensemble dispatched it with palpable glee… this really was a premiere to remember’
The Times, November 2006.


Composition

The Academy’s undergraduate composition curriculum was redesigned in 2005 to reflect the broad vistas and challenges faced by today’s music creator. It uniquely integrates the traditionally distinct areas of media and concert composition.

During the four-year programme, student composers receive a rigorous and comprehensive technical training whilst learning to apply their skills in a variety of contexts. From year three, they specialise in either media or concert work, also retaining close contact with the alternative major through special seminars and practical projects.

The composer-performer relationship lies at the heart of the programme: students learn on the shop-floor by working regularly and closely with a variety of ensembles. The newly-specified Creative Technology Lab supports every aspect of the programme, from digital editing and electro-acoustic composition to Writing to Picture and virtual instruments.


‘Beguiling, fresh-toned solo playing from all quarters … a most enjoyable listening experience – only a hard-hearted listener could completely resist the temptation to smile … wonderful individual and collective performances … This is a commendable release, more than fulfilling its brief and offering much to enjoy’
International Record Review, October2006.