Studying with us in 2021/22
It is possible that the 2021/22 academic year may be affected by the ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Any arrangements put in place by the University for the 2021/22 academic year will be in accordance with the latest government public health advice, pandemic-related/health and safety legislation, and the terms and conditions of the student contract.
If you want to study experimental performance in the UK, with or without a focus on sound, then these are the ideal courses for you.
Designed for emerging arts practitioners, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s brand new PgCert, PgDip and MMus courses in Experimental Performance provide you with a unique opportunity to undertake independent artistic projects in a fully supportive environment.
Available for the first time in September 2019, they enable practitioners from a variety of disciplines (including, but not limited to, instrumental/vocal performance, composition, dance, choreography, theatre, visual and performance art, creative writing) to come together with likeminded people. This course doesn’t ask you to justify yourself against the background of tradition, but gives you agency. People from every discipline are treated equally with emphasis placed on rigorous conceptual thought and idea-development. By focusing on these non-discipline-specific aspects of performance you will contribute to a collaborative, discursive and interdisciplinary working environment.
The core of your study will be formed by your own artistic ideas, which are developed, through research and dialogue, into professional practical projects.
You will be allocated a mentoring team comprising a personal tutor who has experience in collaborative and conceptual approaches alongside additional specialist support according to your individual needs. Your mentoring team is there to help you realise your ideas into fully developed performances in the best possible way.
Our Experimental Performance courses will equip you with the skills you need to engage successfully with diverse contemporary creative practice. While our PgCert focuses exclusively on Experimental Performance work, complementary modules on the PgDip and MMus are intended to enhance your wider professional development. These will be chosen, in discussion with your personal tutor, from a varied list shared with other postgraduate Principal Study disciplines.
Our next Open Day for this course is on Thursday 21 January 2021, and will take place online. Book now to secure your place.
Visit our School site for more student work and extra information.
You may be able to take advantage of the government’s plans to make loans of up to £10,906 available for postgraduate study.
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UK students should normally hold an honours degree. |
Non-UK students should hold a Bachelor's degree or a similar degree-equivalent diploma. |
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Don't meet our entry requirements? You could apply for courses at our International College.
Award: MMus
Starting: Sep 2021
Award: PgCert
Starting: Sep 2021
Award: PgDip
Starting: Sep 2021
Award: MMus
Starting: Sep 2021
Award: PgDip
Starting: Sep 2021
If you're unable to use the online form for any reason, you can complete our PDF application form and equal opportunities PDF form instead. The University reserves the right to increase fees in line with inflation based on the Retail Prices Index or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament up to a maximum of five per cent.
An intensive 12-month MMus route may be proposed by an audition panel for any candidates who demonstrate an exceptional level of achievement in their audition and who can provide evidence of a consistently strong previous academic record. It is not possible to apply for direct entry to this intensive programme.
The Professional Placement version of the course is optional and is offered as an alternative to the standard version of the course.
This will allow you to complete a credit bearing, 20 week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Master’s Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.
You will be responsible for finding and securing your own placement. The University, however, will draw on its extensive network of local, regional and national employers to support you in finding a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will also benefit from support sessions delivered by Careers+ as well as advice and guidance from your School.
Placements will only be confirmed following a competitive, employer-led selection process, therefore the University will not be able to guarantee placements for students who have registered for the ‘with Professional Placement’ course. All students who do not find a suitable placement or do not pass the competitive selection process will be automatically transferred back to the standard, non-placement version of the course.
Further information on writing your personal statement can be found on the UCAS Conservatoires website.
Our courses include activities such as performance, exhibitions, field trips and production of works or artefacts which may require you to purchase specific equipment, instruments, books, materials, hire of venues and accommodation, or other items.
Based on the past experience of our students, you might find it helpful to set aside about £50 for each year of your studies for your personal stationery and study materials. All our students are provided with 100 free pages of printing each year to a maximum total value of £15.
The cost of accommodation and other living costs are not included within your course fees. More information on the cost of accommodation can be found in our accommodation pages.
We offer further information on possible postgraduate financial support. This includes the type of loans, grants and scholarships available both from the government and from Birmingham City University.
Did you know that you can apply for a postgraduate loan of up to £11,222 for some courses and options?
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete one of the following CORE modules (totalling 60 credits):
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete the following CORE module (totalling 60 credits):
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 20 credits):
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete at least 40 credits from the following indicative list of OPTIONAL modules.
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete THREE CORE modules (totalling 140 credits):
In order to complete this course, a student must successfully complete at least 100 credits from the following indicative list of OPTIONAL modules:
THREE Professional Development modules (20 credits each), and
ONE MMus optional module (40 credits)
Whichever course you choose, work in the Principal Study area lies at its heart. For Experimental Performers, the Principal Study modules each culminate in a portfolio of original work. Preparation of this is supported by individual specialist tuition, as well as by a variety of related activities,including sessions with performers, workshops with artists, professional development sessions, discussion-led seminars and a regular group critique session, which will provide an opportunity for discussion of each other’s work.
If you are a MMus or PgDip student you will take a Career Development module, which will require you, near the beginning of your course, to reflect ambitiously yet realistically on your professional aspirations, and to formulate a plan that helps you stand the best chance of achieving your goals. You will also choose, in addition, some Professional Development Options from a varied list. The following gives an indication the kind of optional modules which may be offered in a given year, including some offered by Birmingham City University’s Schools of Art and Media (note, not all will run every year).
MMus students will additionally choose a 40-credit option from one of two categories: ‘The Emerging Researcher’ or ‘The Reflective Practitioner’.
There is some room for negotiation in how the course unfolds for a part-time MMus student over three years, or in the case of part-time PgDip students, over two years.
OpportUNIty: Student Jobs on Campus ensures that our students are given a first opportunity to fill many part-time temporary positions within the University. This allows you to work while you study with us, fitting the job around your course commitments. By taking part in the scheme, you will gain valuable experiences and employability skills, enhancing your prospects in the job market.
It will also allow you to become more involved in University life by delivering, leading and supporting many aspects of the learning experience, from administration to research and mentoring roles.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has a growing community of international students from across the world.
We appreciate the challenges of moving to a new country to live and study and aim to be as supportive as possible.
Aside from being friendly and welcoming, we have various support mechanisms in place to help you settle in as an international student, including:
Further information for prospective international students is available on the University's international pages.
International students who have a serious interest in studying with us but who perhaps cannot meet the direct entry requirements, academic or English, or who have been out of education for some time, can enter Birmingham City University International College (BCUIC) and begin their degree studies.
BCUIC is part of the global Navitas Group, an internationally recognised education provider, and the partnership allows students to access the University’s facilities and services and move seamlessly through to achieving a Bachelor’s degree from Birmingham City University.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s £57 million music building opened in September 2017, and is located on Birmingham City University’s City Centre Campus in the Eastside ‘learning quarter’ of the city.
This brand new music facility include five public performance venues – a 500 seat Concert Hall, 150 seat Recital Hall, Organ Studio, Eastside Jazz Club and the experimental black box performance venue known as The Lab. As well as these stunning performance venues, we have nearly 100 practice spaces; including 70 small practice rooms and larger ensemble rooms and workshops.
Our new home is the first conservatoire built in the digital age, and as such it has been vital to ensure that the technical infrastructure installed is on par with any advanced commercial facility. We have seven recording studios, a mastering suite, a distance learning hub, and all of our performance venues feature high specification audio-visual equipment that enables interconnectivity and advanced functionality throughout the building.
These impressive modern facilities guarantee that we are excel in our unique dual purpose of providing the highest standard of music education deserved by our students, as well as meeting our role as a concert and performance venue for the people of Birmingham; taking our place in the vibrant cultural landscape of the UK’s second city.
Michael Wolters was born in 1971 in Mönchengladbach, Germany and grew up in Niederkrüchten, a small German village on the Dutch border. After working as a care worker in a children's home and a runner at several theatres in Germany and Scarborough he studied Applied Theatre Studies at Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany and Composition at the University of Huddersfield (BA, MA) and the University of Birmingham (PhD). His teachers include Christopher Fox, Heiner Goebbels, Patric Standford and Vic Hoyland.
His works have been performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the ISCM World Music Days in Manchester, Spitalfields Festival, the Barbican Centre, Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Purcell Room, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Tate Liverpool and various other concert halls, festivals, supermarkets, art galleries, shoe shops, theatres, banks, opera houses, in cafes, on beaches, on ice rinks, in cinemas, on the radio, on TV; in Europe, Russia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.
He works in close relationship with the German theatre artist Marcus Droß and he’s a founding member of the artists’ collective New Guide to Opera.
He joined the composition department in 2004 as a visiting tutor and was awarded the title of Associate Professor in Composition in 2015.
His recent commissions include Ava’s Wedding – An English Tragedy: a full-length opera written for and performed by Birmingham Conservatoire; Requiem: his fifth commission from Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; Danserye and chorus/groove space: two collaborations with choreographer Sebastian Matthias.
Andy Ingamells is an experimental musician who develops unusual methods of composition that blur the line between composer and performer. He has dispersed brief instructions via the internet to be interpreted and performed in over 30 different countries during a single day, played gold-painted pianos filled with buckets of red wallpaper paste, been tickled by improvisors playing his ticklish body as an instrument, and completed a marathon five-day performance-journey across Europe inspired by organ music.
His work has been performed in the National Portrait Gallery, the Handel & Hendrix House Museum and Café Oto in London, the Orgelpark and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Lapidarium of Kings in Copenhagen, Walled City Festival in Derry, Wunderbar Festival in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Cheltenham International Music Festival.
Andy is a graduate of the Master Artistic Research programme at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and completed his bachelor study at Birmingham Conservatoire, winning the BMus Prize and the Orchestral Composition Prize, in addition to the Composition Department Prize for his destructive Piano Recital. He has recently completed a PhD supported by the Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, with the aim of his research being to develop an expanded compositional practice that can serve as a blueprint to equip composer-performers with invaluable skills to question existing orthodoxies within a changing music world.
Paul Norman’s composition practice places emphasis on ideas and concepts and includes visual and performative elements in both the composition process and performance.
Norman has produced solo projects and interdisciplinary collaborations together with dance, fine art and theatre, showing his work across Europe, including: Frankfurt LAB, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Theatre Freiburg, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Tanzhaus NRW, Düsseldorf and Sophiensäle, Berlin in Germany, Gessnerallee, Zurich and Tingueley Museum, Basel in Switzerland, Post-Paradise, Fluid, Coda and Frontiers Festivals, Birmingham in the UK.
Norman was recently awarded a PhD in composition that explored the effects that decisions made in the composition process have on what is communicated to an audience during performance. Titled UNPROTECTED PRACTICE: Including Process as Compositional Material the PhD was awarded by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and fully funded by AHRC Midlands3Cities.
Luan is Director of Postgraduate Studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where she has taught since 2011. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and was made an Honorary Member of RBC in 2001. In her former role as RBC’s first Head of Pedagogy (2011-2018), she significantly expanded provision for instrumental teacher education across the RBC curriculum. Luan is passionate about helping students to build their portfolio careers and her doctoral research focuses on facilitating the transition from student to professional through instrumental teacher education in conservatoires.