A Keyboard Department is as good as its staff. I urge you to research our keyboard tutors to discover for yourself our large team of great keyboard artists.
We have separate Heads of Organ, Collaborative Piano and Early Music. This gives these areas focus and drive, but there is also extraordinary flexibility to move between them. For example, an undergraduate Final Recital may be entirely solo, entirely collaborative (chamber music and song) or any mixture of the two. There is similar flexibility at postgraduate level.
The early undergraduate years have certain requirements to establish breadth and rigour. All second year piano students, for example, study and perform on our two Fortepianos, because it is essential to an understanding of classical style. Thereafter, you might become a first study Fortepianist, keep Fortepiano lessons in your creative mix, or never play another note.
The University ethos unique to Birmingham Conservatoire fosters a self-motivated approach. For instance, pianists may choose to have more than one tutor, and all undergraduates are able to use ‘student-allocated tutor hours’ for related study, as well as other activities such as collaborative coaching, to further broaden the mix of their study.
Our students are some of the finest competition-winning international talents, with impeccable work ethics. But they also enjoy a friendly and mutually supportive ethos that gives Birmingham arguably the best working atmosphere of any UK conservatoire. I hope you will join us here.
John Thwaites
Head of Keyboard Studies