Music

Music is both an art and an intellectual discipline, encompassing performance, composition, analysis, and the study of music's history and cultural meanings. At its best, music education develops not only technical skill and creative expression but also the capacity to listen with precision, to think analytically about sound and structure, and to understand how music relates to the societies in which it is made. Whether your primary interest lies in performing, composing, or understanding music critically, a music degree develops capacities that are genuinely distinctive.

At Liverpool Hope University, this three-year full-time degree benefits from a location that is genuinely formative for anyone serious about music. Liverpool's musical heritage and its continuing role as a city with a diverse and vibrant live music scene, spanning popular, classical, jazz, folk, electronic, and experimental traditions, provide a rich context for both creative and academic study. You will study the history and analysis of music from different periods and traditions, develop your compositional and aural skills, and have the opportunity to extend your performance practice.

Research methods and critical writing develop your capacity to engage with music scholarship at a university level. A placement or work experience year is built into the programme, and a year abroad is also available, broadening your musical and personal horizons.

You will develop musical understanding across a range of traditions and contexts, the ability to analyse and write about music with clarity, and the professional and creative skills that working in or around music requires.

Graduates pursue careers as performers, composers, music teachers, music producers, music journalists and critics, arts administrators, and in music therapy following further study. The analytical and communication skills developed through music study are also valued in broadcasting, publishing, and the wider creative and cultural sectors. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in performance, composition, musicology, or music education.