MComp in Composition (Guildhall Artist Masters)

Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Studying Composition at Guildhall Artist Masters level prepares you for professional life as a composer. It allows you to explore and refine your individual artistic voice within the collaborative atmosphere of a busy, modern conservatoire, while also giving you the space for self-reflection. The MMus/MComp can also be studied as a purely electronic specialism.

About the MMus/MComp programme

Guildhall School offers some of the most stimulating and creative training for composers in the UK. Studying Composition at Guildhall Artist Masters level prepares you for professional life as a composer. It allows you to explore and refine your individual artistic voice within the collaborative atmosphere of a busy, modern conservatoire, while also giving you the space for self-reflection.

The programme centres around weekly one-to-one Principal Study lessons. You will be allocated to one of the Department’s distinguished Faculty of composers, who will guide your creative participation on core projects across the year. The outcomes of core projects are all workshopped, rehearsed, publicly performed and recorded. Weekly composition seminars and open sessions support technical, aesthetic and professional development, and a choice of elective modules support specific aspects of your development.

Successful completion of Part One meets all the criteria for a Masters level (level 7) award and a student may conclude their studies at this point and be awarded a Master of Music (or a Postgraduate Diploma, according to the modules taken). Part Two represents progression for the student in terms of depth and breadth of repertoire within a project-based structure that mimics, in a controlled environment, professional practice at the highest level. Students who continue to Part Two (progression criteria apply, see Part One below) will be awarded, on its successful completion, a Master of Composition (Guildhall Artist).