Bath Spa University, BA (Hons), Music

This programme includes three specializations: Community Music, Jazz, Vocal Performance.

Performance

This is a highly practical course. Every week a day is dedicated to ensemble performance and related activities for students in all years - these include choirs, orchestras, wind band, big bands and gamelan. There are also numerous other ensembles including brass, wind and string groups and an experimental ensemble called Material. There are regular student performances through the year, both at the Michael Tippett Centre, and in Bath as well as beyond. Each year, the School promotes opera and musical theatre productions, in which music students take part. Recent operas have included Philip Glass's Satyagraha, Mozart's The Magic Flute, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Handel's Semele and Puccini's Il Trittico. Musical theatre productions have included Sondheim's Into the Woods, Company, A Little Night Music and Seussical.

Composition

Composition students work in a wide variety of musical styles and genres and have regular opportunities of working with professional performers. Recent visiting ensembles who have performed student work have included Ensemble Bash, Plus Minus, the Kreutzer Quartet and the New London Chamber Ensemble. There are also regular opportunities for performances of student work by our own student ensembles and there is a commission project for all final year composition students.

Visiting performers and composers

We have regular visits from high-profile international performers and composers. Recent visitors have included Peter Donohoe, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Judith Weir, Joanna MacGregor, Tim Hugh, David Matthews, Trevor Wishart, Denis Smalley, Graham Fitkin and Kathy Hinde.

Facilities

Based at the Michael Tippett Centre, we have excellent facilities including:

• A purpose-built concert hall with superb acoustics
• 17 practice rooms, three with electronically variable acoustic
• A wide range of medieval, renaissance and baroque instruments, and a large collection of percussion and orchestral instruments
• A Javanese Gamelan
• A high spec music technology laboratory
• Five recording studios 
• Two band rehearsal rooms
• Large well-stocked Music Library and a wide range of online musical resources
• Bath and nearby Bristol are busy centres for performance with many international music festivals, touring operas, concerts and shows. Bath particularly has an extensive semi-professional and amateur life with many opportunities for students to join in music-making in the city.