Music at Bangor University

MUSIC @SMMBangor www.bangor.ac.uk/music-and-media

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Bangor University has achieved a Gold Award, the highest rating possible, in the national Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Bangor was amongst the first set of universities, and the only one in Wales, to be awarded Gold in 2017. This means our teaching is of the highest quality in the UK.

Š Iwan Williams

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Students from 80+ nationalities attend Bangor University

2nd IN THE UK FOR COURSES AND LECTURERS What Uni Student Choice Awards 2018

No.1 in the UK for accommodation WhatUni Student Choice Awards 2018

RANKED AMONGST THE UK’S TOP 10 UNIVERSITIES FOR STUDENT SATISFACTION National Students Survey 2018

FREE THE COST OF JOINING OUR SOCIETIES & SPORTS CLUBS

NO.1 IN THE UK FOR CLUBS & SOCIETIES WhatUni Student Choice Awards 2018

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4th BEST REGION IN THE WORLD TO VISIT The Lonely Planet Travel Guide 2017

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YOUR PATH TO A GREAT FUTURE Nestled in a breathtaking location between the Snowdonia mountains and the sea, Bangor is an inspirational location in the UK to study music at degree level. The Music department is situated at the heart of the University campus, offering a close-knit and friendly community alongside the bustle of cafes, shops and city life. You will be less than two hours from Liverpool and Manchester, and enjoy excellent direct train links to London, Birmingham and Cardiff, with the fast ferry to Dublin just half an hour away.

Your Bangor Music degree programme will be flexible. You can forge your own path to a great future. Your course will uniquely balance subject breadth with opportunities to specialise in performance, musicology, composition, and applied fields such as music in health and well-being. The School of Music & Media is also home to expertise in subjects including theatre, film, and video game design, meaning that you can combine multiple passions and choose your own path.

You will benefit from high quality teaching, guided by the world-acclaimed expertise of staff who are practicing professionals.

Music at Bangor topped the National Student Survey league table for two years running (2016 and 2017), with an unbeatable student satisfaction rate of

100%. The government’s last Research Excellence Framework exercise placed us in the top 20 UK music departments. In the Teaching Excellence Framework, Bangor is the only Gold-rated university in Wales offering degrees in Music.

Bangor University is proud to be the world’s leading centre for the study of Welsh music. It is the only university in Wales that offers entire music degrees through the medium of Welsh as well as English. Bangor University received its Royal Charter in 1885 and has been awarding degrees in music since the 1920s.

Your teaching will be informed by almost one hundred years of expertise in the subject. You are welcome to visit us at any time to experience for yourself what makes Bangor University the ideal environment to study music.

You will have exceptional employment prospects. Every year approximately 95% of music graduates find employment or undertake further study within six months of graduating. Former students have gone on to be professional performers, composers, teachers, academics, administrators and managers in arts organisations, music librarians, educational advisers, music therapists, radio producers, researchers, and television presenters – among many other careers.

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A PASSION FOR PERFORMANCE You’ve put the hours of practice in – you’ve studied the music – now it’s time to find an audience!

Bangor University Opera rehearses under the guidance of a professional director, and gives fully staged performances in the University’s main theatre. Recent productions have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Smetana’s The Bartered Bride.

At Bangor you will have the freedom to take advantage of an unrivalled range of music-making opportunities. These activities are free of charge and open to you.

You can easily spend every evening and every weekend performing with others.

Music staff also direct other specialist ensembles, including Early Music Bangor (specialising in Baroque and early Classical instrumental repertoire), Bangor Session Orchestra (recording film scores), and the New Music Ensemble.

Bangor University Symphony Orchestra is north-west Wales’s flagship orchestra. It gives at least four concerts a year. Recent programmes have included Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, piano concertos

by Mozart and Ravel, Grace Williams’ Ballads, symphonies by Beethoven, Farrenc, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, and a concert of music from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

With the support of the School of Music & Media, your Students’ Union runs a large number of other performing ensembles, directed by students like you. These include a brass band, a concert band, a string orchestra, a musicals society, a folk music society, and a jazz band, while the University Music Society runs its own choir and orchestra.

Bangor University Symphony Chorus brings you together with students and staff from across the University to perform major classical works alongside the University Symphony Orchestra. Recent performances have included Verdi’s Requiem, Poulenc’s Gloria, Haydn’s The Creation, and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. It rehearses every week in an informal setting, and there are no auditions.

Bangor University Chamber Choir is a smaller, auditioned group of around 24 singers which specialises in a capella music from the Middle Ages to the present day. It performs in Bangor and further afield, and regularly undertakes themed performances celebrating special events and anniversaries.

Performances by these groups form part of the University’s Pontio arts programme, which also includes regular professional performances. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Allegri String Quartet, Ensemble Cymru, Welsh National Opera, Opra Cymru, Ballet Cymru, and National Dance Company Wales are regular visitors.

Pontio has also recently welcomed artists of the calibre of Bryn Terfel, Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, Elin Manahan Thomas, and Courtney Pine, and hosts the annual Bangor Music Festival, focusing on the music of living composers.

At Bangor you can create an unrivalled musical life for yourself.

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THE PERFECT SETTING FOR MAKING MUSIC Bangor enjoys first-rate music facilities on campus, providing you with the ideal-environment for cutting edge music research, composition, performance and learning.

Your teaching will take place in three buildings, constructed between 1850 and 1911, that have received £3 million of investment since 2015, providing you with a beautiful performance and study space.

Sitting high up above Bangor, with views of the sea and mountains, it’s also the perfect place if you’re looking for a little inspiration for your latest musical composition.

Well-equipped studios and rehearsal rooms are open 24 hours a day 365 days a year, so you can make music whenever the urge takes you.

The professional-standard facilities at your disposal will include: • 2 magnificent concert halls (the 520-seat Prichard Jones Hall and the 200-seat Powis Hall) • 2 theatres (the 450-seat Theatr Bryn Terfel and the 120-seat Studio Theatre) • recital room (the Mathias Hall) • 5 studios for electroacoustic composition and recording • 7 grand pianos, and a large suite of Yamaha uprights • 2 organs • 4 harpsichords, a clavichord, and a harmonium • 2 harps • a full suite of orchestral percussion • drumkit • 14 practice rooms • a library of over 30,000 scores and 6,000 recordings • archives of Welsh traditional music and Welsh pop music • the unique Peter Crossley-Holland Collection of ancient Mexican instruments • state-of-the-art teaching spaces • social learning spaces and common rooms

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UNDERGRADUATE COURSES Bangor’s BMus and BA Music degrees offer a unique balance of subject breadth with opportunities to specialise, meaning that you’re sure to find the ideal course to challenge and stimulate you.

One of the School’s great strengths is in the diversity of expertise available, and the opportunity to work with staff and your fellow students in other disciplines.

Together you can create something special!

BMus Choose our BMus course if you would like to specialise entirely in music. You will begin by following a comprehensive programme of study in musicology, performance and composition, before increasingly specialising in the areas where your best talents lie.

This offers you unique opportunities to develop your skills further by working closely with other creative practitioners and scholars. You will also be able to study Music as half of a joint-honours programme alongside another subject including languages, literature, history, philosophy, and electronic engineering.

BA in Music If you would like to make the most of the wide expertise on offer at Bangor University, the BA Music programme is for you. As a BA student you can take a handful of modules in other subjects while choosing only the Music modules that most closely match your interests.

We also offer joint-honours degrees with Creative Studies, Creative Writing, Electronic Engineering, English Literature, Film Studies, French, German, History, Italian, Media Studies, Philosophy & Religion, Spanish, and Welsh, and major/ minor degrees* with Game Design, Journalism, and Theatre & Performance.

Music at Bangor is part of the School of Music & Media, which also specialises in:

If you’re enrolled on any of these programmes you may take an additional year of International Experience, fully supported by the University, at any point in your studies.

• Theatre & Performance • Game Design • Film • Media Production • Media Studies • Journalism • Creative and Professional Writing

*subject to validation

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COURSE STRUCTURE Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

During the first year you develop a broad foundation in musicology, composition and performance, across the following five modules:

In the second year, you can begin to specialise in at least two areas of interest.

The Study of Music a survey of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, encompassing all styles and genres from plainchant to prog rock, from Lassus to Ligeti, and from Bach to Björk

• Musicology • Notation and Editing • Composition • Acousmatic Composition • Solo Performance • Arts in the Community Genre/Composer Studies: at least two from a wide range of options which change every year. Recent options have included: • Josquin and his Contemporaries • Music and Politics in 17th-Century England • The 19th-Century Symphony • Welsh Music in the 20th Century • Seven Jazz Women • The Beatles • Stockhausen and many more.

Further Options: • Composing for Film and Media • Conducting • Ensemble Performance • Fusion Ensemble • Music in Health and Well-being • Music Teaching in Context • Orchestration Today • Songwriting

In the final year of the programme, you will have the opportunity to take all you’ve learned during the preceding years and create your masterpiece!

Solo Performance a programme of weekly practical workshops, supplemented by regular one-to-one instrumental or vocal lessons from a professional musician Composition an introduction to the art of writing contemporary classical music for instruments and voices Sonic Art a practical exploration of creative and innovative uses of music technology, suitable for beginners and technical wizards alike Harmony and Counterpoint a graded course of study which develops your skills in Western musical theory, delivered in two streams for those with and without former experience of harmony

Core Studies: at least two of the following:

You can take one or two projects in their chosen specialist area(s): a Dissertation, an Editing project, a Composition portfolio, and/or a Solo Performance recital. You also have the opportunity to choose additional modules from the lists of Genre/ Composer Studies and Further Options from Year 2.

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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS Music BA (Hons) Music BMus (Hons)

W300 W302

128-120 UCAS Tariff points from Level 3 qualifications* with normally at least a B in A Level Music (or equivalent) and/or Merit in Grade 5 Theory or Grade 7/8 Practical (ABRSM, Trinity, LCM, or Rockschool). We also welcome applications from mature applicants.

For courses combining Music with another subject there may be additional entry requirements specified. Please visit our website for full details. *Level 3 qualifications include A-levels, BTEC, Access, Irish Highers, International Baccalaureate, Welsh Baccalaureate, Scottish Advanced Highers, and others.

“The lecturers are incredible and will go out of their way to help you. They expand on passions that you already have and make those passions grow.”

“The extracurricular activities available at Bangor are so valuable.

There is always a ‘real world’ application, whether it’s playing in an orchestra, being on a committee, front of house duties at concerts or just generally helping out around the department.”

JOJO ARVANITIS (MA IN MUSIC), COORDINATOR, ENGLISH SESSION ORCHESTRA Bangor School of Music & Media 9

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POSTGRADUATE COURSES Further specialism is available to you on a range of Masters programmes, which are offered on a full-time or part-time basis (one year or two years respectively).

MA in Music

Research degrees

This programme hones musicological skills through a detailed study of musical repertoire and core academic texts. You will have ample opportunity to specialise in musical styles, genres and periods that most interest them.

• MA by Research / MMus by Research (1 year) Full-time • MPhil (2 years) Full-time • PhD (3 years) Full-time The School hosts a community of postgraduate research students, working in a range of fields in musicology, composition and performance. Applications are especially welcome for PhD study in areas that benefit from staff research expertise, including:

MA in Music with Education This innovative programme is taught jointly by the School of Music & Media and the School of Education and Human Development. You will specialise in musicology, performance or composition while following an in-depth scheme of study in practical music education, including an optional placement in a school.

MMus in Composition and Sonic Art This programme builds practical compositional experience through specialist study and interaction across four pathways: composing for instruments and voices, acousmatic composition, composing for film and media, and composing popular music.

MMus in Performance On this programme, you will hone their skills as performers through a combination of practical and academic study. In addition to weekly seminars, you will receive 36 hours of one-to-one practical tuition.

• composition (acoustic, electroacoustic, multi-media and popular) • early music • 20th-century music • popular music • editing • music in health and well-being • music education • new music performance

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS MA / MMus A first degree at 2.ii standard or higher (or equivalent) is required. Candidates with a 2.ii degree must however achieve a 2.i in a substantial project in their chosen area of study (e.g. a dissertation).

MA / MMus by Research A first degree at British Bachelor’s standard (or equivalent), normally in the first-class category.

Music PhD / MPhil A minimum of Merit in a relevant Masters degree (or equivalent).

For all Masters degrees, applicants may be asked to submit samples of work in support of their application.

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LOCATION Bangor University is situated in one of the most beautiful and scenic parts of the country. Our location has been described by The Independent’s A-Z of Universities and Higher Education Colleges as: the best university setting in the UK The A55 expressway along the North Wales coastline provides fast and easy access to and from the main UK motorway network.

Manchester International Airport is within a one-and-a-half hour drive of Bangor. Rail connections to Crewe and London are direct, and ferry connections from nearby Holyhead to Ireland are fast and frequent.

Rail Road Ferry

Bangor University

Distance from Manchester

2 hours London

3.5 hours Liverpool

1.5 hours Chester

1 hour Dublin

3 hours

Information in this leaflet is correct at the time of printing (October 2018)

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School of Music & Media Bangor University Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG. UK

www.bangor.ac.uk/music-and-media

T: +44 (0)1248 38 2085 E: music@bangor.ac.uk

facebook.com/SMMBangor @SMMBangor

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