Studying Music at Leeds is a stimulating and challenging experience. The School is energised by a large and diverse staff with interests that cover the widest range of musical periods, genres and disciplines. The student body is likewise diverse. Undergraduates from both degree courses, BA Music and BMus, interact to create performances, compositions, and projects that cross boundaries and reflect the breadth of music's importance in contemporary cultural life.
The School balances traditional musical studies of performance, composition and critical and historical studies, with developing areas such as popular music, world musics, music psychology and music technology. Course structures are flexible, starting from a broad base at level one, in which students from the three courses share several modules, and proceeding to specialist studies at levels 2 and 3, which cater for the interests of individual students – from Purcell to punk or grand opera to gamelan.
Music in the City
Leeds is a centre for music of all kinds – from orchestral to jazz, rock to reggae, hip hop to bhangra – with venues as wide-ranging as the Victorian Town Hall to the funky Wardrobe, the indie ambience of the Cockpit, the good-time vibes of the Irish Centre and the intimacy of singer-songwriter nights at Doctor Wu's.
As for clubs and dance culture, the city has been at the cutting edge for some time. Its dance music, from house to ambient, techno to drum'n'bass, has been shaking the basements and attics of the UK for almost two decades now, and Leeds has remained one of the prime centres for DJs and club-goers.
First-rate venues like the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the newly refurbished Grand Theatre host drama and opera and dance. The city is home to Opera North and the Northern Theatre, both of which have excellent reputation for innovative programming and productions.
Leeds' commitment to the arts and culture is supported by its array of excellent and complementary institutions – Leeds University, Leeds Metropolitan University and Leeds College of Music are only three of the higher education colleges where degrees are awarded – which bring the energy and excitement of students to the centre of the city's life.