Percussion (Orchestral) & Timpani

The Academy’s Professional Diploma is a one-of-a-kind programme for students who are looking for a specially tailored extra year of study to provide a competitive edge in building a career.

It is a highly focused combination of one-to-one tuition and professional development activity built around the needs of each individual student in consultation with the ProfDip Programme Tutor and the relevant Head of Department. Applicants will normally have completed a master’s degree but the programme is available to all applicants of the appropriate standard.

Training: In addition to the 45 hours of one-to-one tuition, all postgraduate students undertake an extensive programme of departmental activity targeted to their specialist focus.

The following are examples of specialisms studied in recent years. There is no blueprint; the nature and scope of the specialism differs in each case.

Specialisms examples:

• Opera repetiteurship

• Historical Performance for modern instrumentalists

• Preparation for opera studies

• Orchestral Doubling specialisms (eg contrabassoon or piccolo)

• Collaborative piano

• Composition for television, film and media

• Flute and piano duo repertoire from the first half of the twentieth century

• Extended techniques on the cello

• The German school of tuba playing, with an emphasis upon orchestral performance

• The study of poets: lieder with texts by Shakespeare and Goethe

• The role of the principal viola in an orchestra