Gaelic Studies and Music

Gaelic Studies and Music at Aberdeen allows you to undertake in-depth study in Scotland's oldest living language while working alongside world-renowned composers and musicologists across different genres, styles and periods. You will have opportunities to grow as a musician and performer and acquire the skills for varied careers related to your language, music or applied in another sector.

Aberdeen is the ideal environment and location to study music, with 500 years of musical history and heritage and a vibrant cultural identity which celebrates the traditional while embracing the modern.

We have also been teaching Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) and culture for a hundred years, led by teachers and researchers passionate about Gaelic and whose work directly influences Scottish policy on keeping Gaelic alive, healthy and crucial in Scotland today. Gaelic Studies at Aberdeen is the ideal combination of tradition, location, programme, quality and inspiring teachers for you as a beginner or native speaker to enjoy exploring Gaelic language, literature and culture and its place in our world today. Our students and staff play an important role in Scotland’s Gaelic-interest community through activities, networks and organisations.

In Music Studies, you can develop your interests and abilities through courses in performance, composition, theory, musicianship and history of music, taking advantage of the outstanding quality of our teachers, instruments and facilities and many opportunities to perform.

In addition to a career in music, the academic skills you will develop will open opportunities in teaching, history and heritage, or arts management.