Postgraduate courses
The postgraduate courses in Music at Kingston enable you to follow a specialist pathway or to create your own by choosing from a range of module options. The specialist routes are:
- Composing for Film and Television MMus
- Electroacoustic Composition MMus
- Music and the Creative Economy MA
- Music Education MA
- Music Performance MMus
- Production of Popular Music MMus
If you do not wish to specialise you can simply opt for our:
We also offer postgraduate research degrees for more specialised research:
Musical activities
All postgraduate music students can join any of the large University ensembles - you can choose from the chorus, Vox vocal group, chamber choir, symphony and wind orchestras, big band, guitar group, electro-acoustic ensemble, Javanese gamelan ensemble and djembe drumming group. In addition, performance students are encouraged to form their own ensembles. Ensemble activity is credited towards the assessment of some course modules.
Our University ensembles feature in public concerts held regularly in leading local venues, as well as in local events such as the annual Kingston Arts Festival and Kingston Early Music Festival. Lunchtime concerts, involving students or visiting artists, take place at least weekly throughout the academic year in Coombehurst Studio and elsewhere.
Masterclasses, which form part of the course for students taking Performance, are given by leading artists such as Visiting Professor of Performance Robert Taub. Workshops and seminars take place regularly at Coombehurst; recent events have been led by Research Fellow the soprano Jane Manning and members of our Ensemble in Residence, the Delta Saxophone Quartet.
Tuition format
You will be taught through lectures, workshops and seminars. All students can benefit from individual tutorial support. If you take modules in solo Performance you will receive individual tuition on your instrument/voice.
Assessment
Your work will be assessed through course work such as essays, folios of compositions, practical work or recordings, seminar presentations and critical commentaries, dissertations and written evaluations. There are no formal written examinations. If you take modules in Performance, however, you will undertake practical examinations.
Careers
The Master's course has been running since 1994 and graduates include musicians who have become successful as performers, teachers, lecturers, and composers, including composers for film and television. Several graduates have gone on to PhD study at Kingston and elsewhere, and the courses have enabled graduates to gain promotion in their work.
Entry requirements
The normal admission requirement is an Honours Degree in Music with at least a second class or equivalent. Suitable professional experience can also be taken into account.
As a prospective student you will need to show a high level of ability in your chosen pathway. See the individual course pages for further details.
All students whose first language is not English must have either a TOEFL score of 570, or IELTS of 6.5, or equivalent. There is free English language support throughout the course.
