Music Technology - MMus / PgCert / PgDip

Our postgraduate courses in Music Technology provide an opportunity for composers and composer-performers to experiment with and develop expertise in the creative application of established and new music technologies.

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is an internationally important centre for performance and composition with technology, especially live electronics. An example of its work is the highly acclaimed Integra Live project, an application that makes it easy to use interactive audio processing to create new music.

As you might expect, in this context, our postgraduate courses in Music Technology provide an exciting opportunity for composers and composer-performers to experiment with and develop expertise in the creative application of established and new music technologies.

You'll have full access to our superb £57 million facilities, including our Concert Hall,  Recital Hall, seven recording studios, editing and mastering suites, and our black-box performance space known as The Lab. Alongside your focus on Music Technology, our courses provide opportunities for you to develop other skills relevant to a future career in the music profession.

What's covered in the course?

• Regular individual tuition in Music Technology from world-leading practitioners and researchers
• A chance to develop a distinctive creative voice within the context of a broad-based course, enhancing your employability.
• The opportunity to participate in a wide variety of creative projects, including interdisciplinary collaborations.
• Access to state-of-the-art hardware, software, recording studios and performance spaces including our experimental black-box performance space called The Lab. 
• Regular forums, seminars and masterclasses with distinguished visiting composers and performers.
• A chance to network with leading professionals from around the world through our leading role in Integra Live.
• By studying Music Technology in the setting of a thriving conservatoire, you'll benefit from opportunities to work with professional ensembles and musicians, as well as student performers, including our contemporary music group, Thallein Ensemble.
• In PgDip and MMus, a core career development module designed to get you thinking about your future professional plans. 
•  In PgDip and MMus, the flexibility to choose from a broad menu of Professional Development modules designed to help you work towards achieving your personal career aspirations.
• In MMus, a core module designed to develop your skills as a researcher or informed practitioner.
• In PgCert, the ability to focus wholly on the principal study area.
• The possibility of transferring between PgCert, PgDip to and/or MMus (as appropriate) once you have begun your studies (but before completion of your original course).

Why Choose Us?

At Royal Birmingham Conservatoire we provide a friendly and supportive environment in which you can pursue your postgraduate studies. This is a time when you need to think particularly carefully and strategically about the direction of your developing career as a musician. We therefore encourage you to be ambitious in pursuing your aspirations, and endeavour to provide you with the flexibility to mould your course to your individual needs, both within your Principal Study area and – for PgDip and MMus students – in complementary modules.

MMus/PgDip/PgCert

Audition requirements

English language requirements

English language requirements

• IELTS overall score 6.0 (5.5 in all components) or equivalent is required.

For any candidates who demonstrate an exceptional level of achievement in their audition/interview, a panel may identify them as a potential contender for our 12-month MMus, with credit for advanced standing. If the candidate expresses interest in pursuing this option, this will trigger a follow-up interview to explore their suitability further. However, it is not possible to apply for direct entry to this 12-month programme.

Completing your application

Further information on writing your personal statement can be found on the UCAS Conservatoires website.

Course structure

Whichever course you choose, work in the Principal Study area lies at its heart. For Music Technologists, the Principal Study modules each culminate in a portfolio of original creative music technology work. Preparation of this is supported by individual specialist tuition, as well as by departmental activities.

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’.

Part-time options

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

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.

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've put various support mechanisms in place to help you settle in as an international students, including:

• An international students' 'orientation week', including a special Conservatoire 'welcome' event.

• A dedicated international student admissions administrator.

• A full-time staff member employed as international student mentor (who speaks Mandarin).

• A pastoral mentoring system in which you, as a new postgraduate international student, are mentored by continuing postgraduate international students.

• Additional academic skills support provided by expert tutors from the University's Centre for Academic Success, and by postgraduate academic mentors from among continuing postgraduate students.

Further information for prospective international students is available on the University's international pages.

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.