Overview
Music at Aldermere combines academic study with a great deal of music-making. You will study harmony, history and analysis alongside performance and composition, and play or sing with the College Orchestra, the Chapel Choir and more than twenty student ensembles.
Choral scholars sing Evensong three times a week and record with the Chapel Choir; instrumental scholars receive free lessons with professional teachers.
- 30Choral scholarships
- 20+Student ensembles
- 3Services a week sung by the Chapel Choir
Course structure
The outline below shows a typical path through the course. Options change a little each year as tutors join and research moves on.
Year 1
- Harmony and Counterpoint
- Music History I
- Analysis
- Performance or Composition portfolio
Year 2
- Music History II
- Orchestration
- Ethnomusicology
- Performance or Composition portfolio
Year 3
- Recital or composition portfolio
- Dissertation
- Two options, e.g. Opera, Film Music
How you will learn
You will have two tutorials a week with one or two other students, where you discuss the essay or problem set you wrote that week with a tutor. Lectures, seminars of ten to twelve students and practical classes fill the rest of the week. Each student has a personal tutor for the whole degree.
Assessment
Examinations, compositions, recitals and a dissertation. You choose the balance between performance, composition and scholarship in the final year.
Entry requirements
- A levels: AAB, including Music
- International Baccalaureate: 36 points, with 6 in Higher Level Music
- An audition or composition portfolio
We make contextual offers, typically one grade lower, to applicants from schools that send few students to university. If your qualifications are not listed, the admissions office will tell you what we would expect.
Fees and funding
Tuition for 2027-28 is $38,400 a year, including college membership. Under the Aldermere Promise, students from families earning under $85,000 a year pay no tuition, and partial awards continue up to $150,000. Every undergraduate also receives a $2,000 grant each year for books, travel and equipment.
Careers
Graduates of this programme go on to a wide range of careers. Recent destinations include:
- Performance
- Composition and arrangement
- Music education
- Arts administration
- Broadcasting
- Music publishing
I came for the choir and stayed for the harmony tutorials. Both have made me a better listener.
Sofia Marchetti First year
Questions
Can I apply for a choral scholarship?
Yes. Choral and organ scholarship trials are held in September, before the application deadline. Scholarships are open to students of any subject.
Can I change programme after I arrive?
Yes, at the end of the first year, if there is space on the programme you want to move to and your tutors agree. Around one student in twenty does.
Is there an interview?
Yes. Shortlisted applicants have a conversation of about twenty-five minutes with two tutors in December, in person or online. It is about how you think, not what you have memorised.
