Voice

Overview

Our four-year Bachelor of Music (BMus) undergraduate degree programme attracts talented young musicians from across the world to study with today’s finest musicians and teachers.

The BMus combines focused study in performance with supporting academic studies. Every aspect is designed to help you towards realising your full musical potential, and to prepare you for your career in music.

You will have at least one hour of one-to-one tuition per week in your Principal Study and numerous performance opportunities. We offer a wide range of activities, events, training sessions and modules for you to hone your skill in such things as studio recording and editing techniques, self-promotion and marketing, writing CVs, making funding applications, understanding the music business and working in arts management.

At the end of your third and fourth years, you submit a portfolio of materials to help prepare you for professional life after the Academy.

BMus Entry Requirements

• Performance/Composition: High standard of performing potential or composition, strong musicianship, and good aural skills.
• Music Exams: Formal exams are not required, but successful performers are typically at a Grade 8 Distinction level or higher.
• Music Theory: Grade 6 level knowledge is recommended before starting if you aren't taking school music exams.
• Keyboard Skills: No formal minimum required (unless it's your Principal Study), though Grade 5 piano is desirable to support general musicianship.

See Entry Requirements for full academic and international criteria.

Modules

The BMus in Voice applies to the following vocal styles and ranges:

Bass-Baritone, Counter-Tenor, Mezzo-Soprano, Soprano, Tenor

Undergraduate students take weekly academic classes in addition to their principal study. The classes are designed to complement and add to every student’s creative development as performers.

Core Modules - Years 1 and 2

• Analytical Skills 1
• Analytical Skills 2
• Performing In Context 1
• Performing In Context 2
• Aural Skills 1
• Aural Skills 2
• Score Reading
• Artist Development

Elective Modules - Years 3 and 4

• Analysis of Post-Tonal Music
• Approaching the Great Luthiers
• Aural Skills, Further
• Baroque Performance on Historical Instruments
• Baroque Performance on Historical Instruments, Advanced
• Compositional Techniques of the Germanic Traditions c.1780-c.1880
• Conducting, Advanced
• Conducting, Intermediate
• Contemporary Music Workshop
• Crossing Cultural Frontiers
• Free Composition for Performers
• Free Composition for Performers, Advanced
• Fugue
• Listening to Mozart, Thinking about Mozart, Playing Mozart
• Maestro: a History of Conducting through Film, Recordings and Marked Scores
• Messiaen in Context
• Methods in the Analysis of Tonal Music, Advanced
• Mozart’s Operas
• Musical Aesthetics and Criticism
• Open Academy
• Open Academy. Advanced
• Performing Baroque Music (with a focus on Handel)
• Performing Experimental Music
• Repertoire Studies
• Research Project
• Silent Film Improvisation
• Song Accompaniment
• Studio Performance
• Worldwide Repertoires

Classes and Activities

• Lessons and Repertoire Coaching
• Vocal Technique Class
• Language Classes and Phonetics
• Opera Coaching, Scenes and Stagecraft
• Acting and Movement Classes
• English Song
• French Song
• Lieder
• Craft of Italian
• Oratorio
• Performance Platform

Academy Song Circle

Founded in 2004, the Academy Song Circle offers students the opportunity to hone their skills in the art of recital singing.

Students receive specialist coaching and performance opportunities within the Academy and at external venues around the UK.

Auditions are held annually, and successful students are invited to take part in a number of song recitals during the academic year. Singers and pianists are paired together by the Song Circle Artistic Team, and student duos are then encouraged to choose their own repertoire for Song Circle recitals, in conjunction with their professors and the Song Circle Artistic Team, fostering a spirit of artistic and intellectual curiosity and collaboration.

The Academy Song Circle gives annual recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Leeds Lieder Festival and Austrian Cultural Forum, and in recent years has also appeared at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Kings Place, the Queen’s Gallery, and the National Gallery. Events at the Academy include an annual Valentine’s Day recital and a yearly Schubertiade, held on the anniversary of Schubert’s birth, acknowledging his place as the ‘prince of song’.

Academy Song Circle has made three CD recordings: ‘Songs of Spring’, ‘Songs of Seduction’, and ‘Goethe’s Girls and Mörike’s Men’.

Academy Voices

In 2017, the Academy Voices was established to provide another performance platform for singers and accompanists, offering valuable recital opportunities to a larger pool of students. Each year, Academy Voices presents an eight-recital series at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, with each concert focussing on a specific country and its song and operatic repertoire. In each series, concerts are devoted to German and Austrian Lieder, French mélodie, Italian opera, and English song. Previous series have also included recitals of Spanish song and zarzuela, Russian romances, and Scandinavian song repertoire.

Students benefit from specialist coaching for Academy Voices recitals, and are encouraged to suggest repertoire of their own choice for each concert, in conjunction with their professors and the Academy Voices Artistic Team, which includes Kate Paterson (Head of Vocal Studies), Richard Stokes, James Bailieu, Joseph Middleton and Benjamin Mead.

Auditions

we view your audition as a performance, not a test. Our expert panel is looking for your inherent musicality, unique vocal character, and future potential—not absolute perfection. Relax, breathe, and enjoy sharing your voice with us.

Your Audition Repertoire

For your undergraduate audition (applying for the Bachelor of Music or Gap Year pathways), you must prepare a balanced selection of pieces that showcases your vocal range, technical dexterity, and linguistic ability.

Repertoire Requirements:

• Three Items: You must prepare three contrasting pieces that reflect different musical styles and moods.
• Vocal Agility: At least one of your chosen items must clearly demonstrate your vocal flexibility and agility.
• Recitative: If possible, one of your items should include a recitative.
• Language Requirement: At least one item must be sung in a foreign language (a language that is not your native tongue).

Performance Guidelines

• In-Person Auditions (London): You will choose the first item to perform. The panel will then select which of your remaining items they wish to hear. The Academy provides a professional accompanist for your live audition.
• Video Auditions: You must submit video recordings of your three repertoire items via the Acceptd portal. While the recordings do not need to be filmed in a single, continuous "take," they must be recorded during the same recording session.

Academic Interview & Aural Skills Assessment

In addition to your vocal performance, all undergraduate applicants participate in an evaluation with a member of our academic staff. This is a relaxed conversation designed to explore your study goals, musical background, and artistic interests.

During this session, you will be given a short extract of music to discuss and will complete an Aural Skills Assessment to evaluate your core musicianship. This includes a sight-singing test alongside practical exercises:

• Singing the middle notes of a played chord.
• Identification of musical intervals.
• Sight-reading of rhythms.
• Simultaneous polyrhythms: Sight-reading two different rhythms at the same time (singing one rhythm while clapping the other simultaneously).

Please note: Specimen tests are not published or distributed in advance.

For more information see auditions.