Music MA: Performance
- Creative arts
- Music
- Postgraduate
The Music MA Performance Pathway at Kingston University will empower you as an emerging performer to develop artistry, confidence, and professional versatility.
Empowering artistry, communication and creativity
Prepare to excel as an innovative, reflective and communicative performer
Through this course you will cultivate your technical mastery, artistic confidence, pedagogical insight, and professional resilience. These are key attributes for today's versatile music performers.
The MA Music: performance pathway can lead to a range of careers, both in the industry and related fields. Graduates work in performance, teaching, outreach, composition, and more. If you are already employed, this pathway could accelerate your career promotion and prospects.
You’ll deepen your technical and interpretive skills, refine your stage presence, and gain experience across solo and collaborative performance. Alongside advanced performance training, you’ll explore how musicians communicate, teach, and connect with audiences and learners. The Performance Pathway strengthens your ability to design engaging musical experiences and develop effective presentation strategies. You'll learn about health, wellbeing, and performance psychology for musicians, as well as critical reflection as a tool for artistic growth.
Through lessons, workshops, masterclasses provided by professional performers on campus and access to performances at London's major venues, you’ll grow as a reflective practitioner equipped for today's varied musical environments – on stage, in education, and in creative community settings.
I can't speak highly enough of my time as a postgraduate student at Kingston. Studying on the Music Performance course was a time of not only discovery but also rediscovery of a self that I had forgotten about.
Why choose this course
While you study, you’ll benefit from top quality teaching at Kingston University. We’re ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, and our highly experienced academic staff are active performers, composers and producers themselves.
The Coombehurst Complex and Visconti Studio
As a music student, you'll access a range of professional studio facilities, labs and practice rooms. At Kingston Hill’s Coombehurst complex there are multiple recording studios, mixing and editing rooms, a 5.1 surround studio, and a Synth Lab for exploring analogue synthesis.
You'll also be able to use our flagship Visconti Studio, an analogue-meets-digital space with a 300m² octagonal live room and a selection of vintage and rare recording equipment.
You can book a range of recording and performing instruments, rooms and equipment through our online system.
Music in the library
The Nightingale Centre's music library holds an extensive collection of books, anthologies, scores, sheet music, periodicals, and audio and video recordings. Kingston also subscribes to Grove Music Online and the Naxos online recordings catalogue. You can access these resources from any University workstation.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and labs are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Course content
You will learn alongside other MA Music pathways in three core modules integrating practical and theoretical learning through project-based, interdisciplinary approaches rooted in arts school pedagogy. You will also develop an understanding and critical awareness of contemporary issues, debates, and practices informed by the discipline.
Your two specialist modules – Performing and Teaching Music and Advanced Studies in Performance – will develop your technical, artistic, and collaborative skills as advanced performers. Through one-to-one lessons, masterclasses, workshops, and performance opportunities, you will refine your musicianship across solo and ensemble contexts. You will also evaluate your own artistic development using contemporary research and professional frameworks. You will examine the role of verbal and non-verbal communication, emotional expression, and empathy in shaping your performances. There will be opportunities to design and deliver music activities and assess performance outcomes. In addition, you can join any of the University ensembles, or form your own.
Modules
Modules
Optional placement year
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route visa.
Find out more about the postgraduate work placement scheme.
Professional Placement
Kingston University is a great place to develop as a musician, and I've had a fantastic time here. The staff are really helpful and the Visconti Studio is a brilliant place to record.
Career opportunities
This pathway will equip you to work effectively in diverse and global professional music contexts, develop attributes for resilience and long-term employability, provide opportunities for creative entrepreneurship, and develop sustainable career models. Our graduates have performed professionally, taught in settings both within and beyond educational institutions, and worked in recording studios.
Teaching and assessment
As a music student, you'll be taught a range of musical styles and encouraged to explore a wide range of genres, taking a hands-on, practical and creative approach to learning and develop your critical skills through engagement with new ideas and methods. Assessment is primarily through practical work, complemented by written and presentation assignments that will help you hone your analytical skills and your ability to communicate the value of your artistry.
Fees and funding
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Fees for future course years
Part time
If you start your second year straight after Year 1, you will pay the same fee for both years.
If you take a break before starting your second year, or if you repeat modules from Year 1 in Year 2, the fee for your second year may increase.
Funding support for postgraduate students
If you are a UK student living in England and under 60, you can apply for a loan to study for a postgraduate degree. Find out more through the government's website.
Scholarships and bursaries
Interested in studying a Music MA at Kingston? The following funding support is available:
How to apply
Before you apply
Please read the entry criteria carefully to make sure you meet all requirements before applying.
How to apply online
Use the course selector drop-down at the top of this page to choose your preferred course, start date and mode, then click 'Apply now'. You will be taken to our Online Student Information System (OSIS) where you will complete your application.
If you’re starting a new application, you’ll need to select ‘new user’ and set up a username and password. This will allow you to save and return to your application.
Application deadlines
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will close when the course is full.
After you apply
If the admission tutor wants to see your portfolio, we will email asking you to upload your zipped portfolio to the OSIS portal within three weeks. If we need more information or want to invite you for an interview, we will be in touch directly. After that you will then hear whether your application has been successful.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
