Video auditions

Your video application should include a spoken English introduction PLUS your performance.

Please note, recordings uploaded without the spoken English introduction will not be processed.

Your spoken English introduction (all candidates, except for Musical Theatre department, and there is a different requirement for Historical Performance)

Your spoken introduction must be presented in English. First tell us your name, and then say something about your musical background and the training you’ve had, your musical ambitions and your reasons for applying for your chosen course at the Academy. This should be a separate video recording, between 3 and 5 minutes long, and should not be part of your audition performance.

Your performance

Please look in the 'Audition Requirements' section on your department’s page of the website for details of the audition requirements (see https://www.ram.ac.uk/study/departments). That will also tell you if you must submit a single recording of all your audition items (a single 'take'), or if you can submit a separate recording of each piece.

You should follow the published repertoire requirements. However, sight-reading, scales and arpeggios are not needed in the recording.
A 'piece' can be a movement rather than a complete work (for example, one movement from a sonata).

Accompanied pieces should be performed with an accompaniment, this can be a "minus-one track" if you are unable to get an accompanist.

Please read through our advice (the 'Easy Guide') below for preparing and uploading your video recordings. The spoken introduction should be recorded separately.

Organ candidates

Please point the camera at your side so the assessment panel can see you play at the console, and (if possible) place the microphone some distance away from the instrument.

Timpani & Percussion candidates

Please perform every item on the relevant repertoire list (undergraduate or postgraduate).

Jazz candidates

For the 2024 repertoire items, please refer to the Jazz Audition Requirements

Please find technical information on how to maximise the quality of your video audition on our Video auditions and self-tape advice page.

1. When you complete your UCAS Conservatoires application, select Recording as the audition method. Application details can be found on the How to Apply page.
2. We use Acceptd as our portal for uploading media and documents. There is useful guidance on the Acceptd help page including maximum file sizes. Registration for an Acceptd account is free
3. Please make sure you input your name in exactly the same format as your UCAS Conservatoires application, using Roman letters (please do not use other alphabets such as Greek, Cyrillic, Mandarin etc), and include your UCAS Conservatoires Personal ID number.
4. In 'Select Program Group', choose Undergraduate Applications or Postgraduate Applications for our main auditions. Research candidates should select Doctoral Studies.
5. Remember to check the department audition requirements page for your specialism, to ensure you have included all the necessary items. You should upload actual video files, we do not accept links to YouTube, Dropbox or other external sites. If you are making a long recording, mp4 format will have a smaller file size so it is easier to upload, or you can use a compression software like HandBrake.
6. We recommend uploading before the Acceptd site gets busy which is usually during the afternoon UK time. When your file upload is shown as 'processing', it's in the Acceptd system and you can exit the page or add another file. It is not usually necessary to wait until the processing is complete.
7. In Acceptd, do not press 'Submit' until you have uploaded all your files and previewed the application, to make sure you have included everything.
   Postgraduate candidates - remember the items of written work if those are required for your course.

We may use the Acceptd message service to contact, you, so please remember to add getacceptd.com as a safe sender in your email settings, and look in your junk mailbox regularly in case messages are caught by your spam filter.

You will receive the decision through your UCAS Conservatoires Hub as soon as possible after your application assessment has been completed, this normally will be no later than Christmas for most studies.