Professional Performance - AdvPgDip (post-Masters level 8)

Support your developing career as a professional performer with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's post-Masters, Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Performance. You can choose one of seven specialisms: Instrumental Performance, Vocal Performance, Collaborative Piano, Organ Performance, Chamber Music Performance, Opera Repetiteurship or Choral Conducting.

Our Advanced Postgraduate Diploma (APD) is at 'post-masters level' and is ideal for you if you are an advanced postgraduate performer who already has a Masters degree and are beginning to accept professional engagements. The course will help you to raise your performance standards to the next level, with highly specialised one-to-one tuition in the department most relevant to your specialism.  You can study full-time over 12 months (September-September) or part-time (2 years).

Balance your study with professional experience

The Professional Performance APD allows you to take on performance engagements both within and outside Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as part of your course.   Assessment focuses on your work in professional contexts, via a Professional Performance Portfolio module and a choice of External Engagement and Professional Project modules.   We also provide a Career Management and Self-Promotion module designed to help you deal with those niggling, but vital, non-performance aspects of your professional career.

If you're a home or EU student you have the option to study part-time, which allows you to take the course alongside your already-developing career. Assessment focuses on your work in professional contexts, both within the Conservatoire and externally, and we also provide a Career Management and Self-Promotion module designed to help you deal with those niggling, but vital, non-performance aspects of your professional career.

What's covered in the course?

• Develops your already advanced skills with high-quality tuition and professional performance opportunities.
• Leads to a practical and performance-focused post-masters level qualification (Level 8).
• Helps support and advance your career as a professional musician or performer.
• Gives you access to specialist, experienced tutors.
• Provides numerous performance opportunities at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, including ensembles, coaching workshops and masterclasses.
• Makes use of our excellent links with organisations such as City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Bach Choir, Ex Cathedra, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, and Orchestra of the Swan via our professional schemes.
• Enables you to be part of a small cohort of colleagues who are also at the high, professional standard required to be admitted to this course, which is limited to a small number of students per year.

For further information about auditions, visit the Entry Requirements tab.

Academic and other requirements

Virtual Auditions

For entry in September 2021, virtual auditions are in operation. Please submit your audition video to conservatoire.admissions@bcu.ac.uk following the requirements below.

We know that attending a virtual audition will be a new experience for many of our applicants so we have prepared detailed guidance and advice on our Audition Advice page to help you prepare for your virtual audition and interview

APD auditions for September 2021 entry

There will be two rounds of auditions. Applicants must pass Round One in order to proceed to Round Two.

Round Two applicants will be invited to an interview in December or January. This could either be online or in person (if government guidance permits).

Pre-Audition Materials:
All applicants are required to submit pre-audition materials for consideration by the audition panel. These should be submitted to conservatoire.admissions@bcu.ac.uk at the same time as your application and include:

• A full list of public performances given over the past 24 months, clearly indicating dates, venues and repertoire performed.
• A current biography (of the kind that would appear in a concert/operatic production programme).

Round One:
For round one of the auditions process, you will be required to submit a video recording, the specific details of which are outlined below. Your videos will not be considered by the audition panel until they have received the pre-audition materials listed above.

Instrumental Performance

Instrumentalists should prepare a programme of 40 minutes. Your programme should include a major work and incorporate a variety of periods and styles.

Vocal Performance

Singers should prepare a programme of 40 minutes. Your programme should include music from works in at least three European languages, including English.

Organ Performance

Organists should prepare a programme of 40 minutes. Your programme should include a major work and incorporate a variety of periods and styles.

Collaborative Piano Performance

Collaborative pianists should prepare a programme of 40 minutes. Your programme may include a solo work of no more than 5 minutes, and the remainder should include either vocal repertoire, for example, German Lied, French mélodie or English song; or instrumental repertoire, for example a movement from a major duo-sonata or larger chamber work (strings and/or wind). Alternatively, a combination of the above may be presented.

Chamber Music Performance

Ensembles should prepare a programme of 40 minutes. Your programme should include three or four pieces/movements comprising a variety of periods and styles.

Opera Repetiteurship

Repetiteurs should prepare a short operatic extract lasting between 10-15 minutes. Candidates must play and sing in the vocal lines. The extract must contain at least two characters and be in a language other than English. Candidates should demonstrate an understanding of characterisation and dramatic context.

Choral Conducting

Choral Conductors are required to submit a Portfolio comprising the following items:

• Sample video recordings (where possible) that feature you as conductor in rehearsal (amounting to a maximum of 30 minutes)
• Videos may feature an ensemble of any size to include chamber-sized groups of a minimum of four musicians.
• The camera should ideally be focused on you as conductor, and if possible on your musicians too.
• A list of concerts performed/rehearsal engagements undertaken in the last two years with repertoire covered
• A programming task: please include sample programmes for a) a lunchtime concert (50 minutes) and b) an evening concert (2 x 40 minute halves)
• N.B. conductors are asked to programme a cappella or with piano or organ accompaniment only.
• Programme note samples (for two different works drawn from the above sample programmes)
• Concert reviews (if any)

Round Two:
Round two will comprise an interview with a panel, to include the Course Director, Head of Professional Development and Head of Department. Some additional requirements are set out below:

Vocal Performance

You will be asked to read short texts in French/German and/or Italian, and to undertake some sight-reading which will be sent to you in advance of the interview.

Opera Repetiteurship

Approximately one week before the interview, you will be given an operatic excerpt (which may include accompanied recitative) to prepare in advance. In the interview, this should also be both played and sung.

Choral Conducting

In addition to the interview, conductors will be asked to undertake musicianship tests which will be sent to you in advance. These will include:

• Unaccompanied sight singing in your preferred voice part (to be advised in advance)
• A short passage of four-part score reading in G and F clefs on the piano
• You will also be given a few bars of four-part harmony to read which will be played four times with two or three significant mistakes for you to recognise.
• You will also be asked fundamental questions about score preparation and your conducting decisions based on a score which will be sent to you to prepare in advance, approximately one week before the interview. Where possible, you may be asked to conduct it (or a section of it) to the piano and/or sing a phrase or phrases to illustrate your points.

English language requirements

• IELTS 6.0 (5.5 in all components) or equivalent is required, or previous UK Batchelor’s Degree.

Completing your application

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

If you're an instrumentalist, vocalist, collaborative pianist, organist, opera repetiteur or choral conductor, you will benefit from one-to-one expert tuition with our internationally renowned tutors during the course. Chamber musicians are entitled to both individual tuition and regular coaching for their ensemble.

The three modules which make up the course (two core, one optional) are interrelated and complementary. The flexibility of content is such that you are able to tailor the programme to suit your own needs and aspirations.

Course structure

The course revolves around your individual needs, strategic goals and enthusiasms. To get the most out of it, you'll need to be highly self-motivated and able to work on your own initiative.

There is an expectation that, with the support of your course tutors, you'll take advantage of being on the course to seek out and maximise professional development opportunities which will be strategically useful to your developing career. In other words, this is not a course leading to the start of your career, but one which you take alongside it in its early stages. The principal aim is that, when you graduate, not only will your professional life be well under way, but you'll also have developed the confidence and skills to go on shaping it.

Throughout the course you'll have expert 1:1 tuition and/or coaching in your Principal Study area.

Students on this course have the opportunity to organise weekly performance classes for their cohort. You will also have access to the Conservatoire's full range of ensembles, departmental workshops, performance classes and masterclasses. As an emerging professional musician, it is hoped and expected that you'll carve a distinctive niche for yourself within your department, becoming a role model for students at earlier stages in their studies.

During the course, you will undertake two performance assessments in a professional context within the Conservatoire. For full-time students these will usually take place in terms two and three; for part-time students, one assessment will usually take place in Year 1, and the other in Year 2. You will then have the option to undertake a third professional engagement externally (via the External Engagement module) or to undertake a Professional Project in an area closely aligned to your career aspirations.

Throughout the course, your work in performance will be supported by the Career Management and Self-Promotion module. This module is focused on providing you with practical preparation for the professional world and will be supported by individual tutorials and regular workshops for the whole cohort. 

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 City University is a vibrant and multicultural university in the heart of a modern and diverse city. We welcome many international students every year – there are currently students from more than 80 countries among our student community.

The University is conveniently placed, with Birmingham International Airport nearby and first-rate transport connections to London and the rest of the UK.

Our international pages contain a wealth of information for international students who are considering applying to study here, including:

• Explore some of the good reasons why you should study here.
• Find out how to improve your language skills before starting your studies.
• Find all the information relevant to applicants from your country.
• Learn where to find financial support for your studies.

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.