Music Performance
Music performance is a degree for musicians who want to develop their performing skills to a high professional standard while building the theoretical, historical, and technological knowledge that sustains a versatile music career. Performance is at the centre of the degree, but professional musicians in the modern economy rarely work in a single context: they perform live, record in studios, teach, arrange, collaborate, and increasingly use technology to create, distribute, and promote their music. A degree in music performance prepares you for this multifaceted professional life.
Queen's University Belfast's three-year full-time BA in Music Performance is focused on practice and aimed primarily at students who wish to pursue a professional career in performance, as the course describes. Unusually, the degree takes an inclusive approach with broad appeal to musicians specialising in one or more of a range of performing traditions, including classical, folk, traditional, pop, rock, jazz, singer-songwriter, electronic, and experimental. The typical entry tariff is 136 points.
You will gain extensive experience in solo, ensemble, and improvised settings, and develop skills for performance in the recording studio and in the use of technology within your practice. World-class facilities and concert opportunities support your development as a performer across the full duration of the degree.
Graduates pursue careers as performing musicians, session musicians, music educators, music directors, choir and ensemble leaders, studio musicians, and producers. Belfast's distinctive musical culture, particularly its folk and traditional music traditions, adds a specific character to the range of performing traditions the degree supports. Many graduates also develop portfolio careers combining performance with teaching, recording, composition, and other music-related work.
Postgraduate study in performance, composition, music education, or music technology is a natural next step for those who want to develop a deeper specialism.