Music with a Year of Study Abroad

Our undergraduate courses allow you to specialise and develop your own musical interests whilst acquiring a solid, broad-based education in aesthetics, analysis, composition, ethnomusicology, music history and performance.

The BMus is the ideal choice if you would like to concentrate on music. Of all our courses it offers the most in-depth study, allowing you to spend all your time specialising and studying music. It also enables you to take the specialist 30-credit options of Composition and / or Public Recital in year three (options which are not available on our BA or BSc courses).

Home to the arts, Cardiff is a great location for the study of music in the UK. The city has a professional opera company, Welsh National Opera, and a professional symphony orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The School of Music enjoys a fruitful relationship with both organisations that allows, for instance, students to attend dress rehearsals and buy cut-price tickets for concerts.

We offer a number of instrumental and vocal entrance scholarships. You do not need to apply for these scholarships as you will be automatically considered when applying through UCAS. Visit the School of Music’s website for more information.

You are expected to have gained or shown evidence of working towards Grade 8 in one or more instruments or voice at the time of your application. You may be considered if you are not taking A-level Music but have Grade 8 Practical and Grade 7/8 Theory and are studying appropriate subjects at A-level.

For the year of study abroad you will take modules in music and possibly other subjects that relate to those in your Cardiff degree programme, with opportunities to develop further one or more pathways in composition, historical/critical musicology, performance, music analysis, and/or ethnomusicology. At a host university it is likely that you will gain different perspectives and approaches to a pathway already started and will have, in addition, the possibility of choosing subject areas that are unavailable at Cardiff. The programme aims to provide an important stepping-stone to a more specialized project in the final year, when you return to your final year of study at Cardiff.

Distinctive features

The distinctive features of the course include:

instrumental tuition which is fully funded by the School of Music on your principal study instrument

Business of Music modules which offer a short work placement

composition workshops, performance masterclasses, the University concert series, the John Bird lectures presented by visiting academics and the careers talks which provide many opportunities for contact with active music professionals

major composition and public recital options in year three