Our courses are designed to give you everything you need for a successful career in music.
Professional Diploma (Composition) on UCAS

Classes & activities

  • Analysis and Aesthetics (Alex Hills)

  • Approaching the Great Luthiers (George Zacharias)

  • Attentive Listening (Roderick Chadwick)

  • Audio Recording Techniques (Andrew Lang)

  • Beyond the Score: Communicating With Audiences (Gerard Mcburney)

  • Composition Pathway (David Gorton)

  • Concert Workshop (Roderick Chadwick)

  • Creative Collaboration: Developing Your Identity as a Professional Artist (Jessica Walker)

  • Creative Programming and Research (Neil Heyde and Briony Cox-williams)

  • Enhanced Performance Techniques (Sophie Langdon)

  • Historically Informed Performance

  • Historical Performance Pathway

  • Advanced Historical Performance Pathway

  • The Interpreter’s Workshop (Daniel-ben Pienaar and Neil Heyde)

  • Leadership Skills for Artists (Gwendolyn Tietze)

  • Open Academy Pathway (Julian West)

  • Performing Experimental Music (Alex Hills)

  • Performing French Music (Roy Howat)

  • Practical Conducting Pathway (Dominic Grier)

  • Soundbox (Peter Sheppard Skærved)

  • Studio Performance (Amy Blier-carruthers)

Department Classes
And Activities

In addition to individual lessons, composers participate in the following activities:

Orchestration and Analysis

Developing skills in producing scores and performance parts to build confidence in adapting compositional processes to the
demands of different performance contexts.

Electronic Music and Creative Technology

The Academy has a wide range of Creative Technology facilities. These allow the composition, recording, editing and mixing of a wide range of musical styles to be done using professional-quality hardware and software. We have dedicated staff to teach you how to use it.

Composer Workshops

You will be given regular occasions to rehearse and record your work with talented Academy musicians in both studio and concert hall settings. There are many opportunities for student compositions to be played by orchestral and chamber ensembles both inside and outside the Academy.

Composition Concerts

Composer Platform concerts are given at the end of each term, both within the Academy and in external venues in London.

Commissions

Throughout the year, we offer a number of commissions to our composers to write for a wide variety of events with professional performers both within and outside the Academy. Recently, three of our composers wrote commissions for the annual Spitalfields Festival.

Seminar Series

This series underpins all composition studies and features guest composers such as Brian Eno, Simon Holt, Judith Weir, Beat Furrer, Martijn Padding, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, and Betsy Jolas.

Download course Programme specification

Artistic Excellence

We welcome the finest students from around the world to learn and perform alongside globally renowned artists, ensuring they benefit from a music-making environment of the highest quality.

Discover more here.

Living in London Wellbeing and support Alumni