The Academy’s brass department aims to maximise the musical skills of each individual student preparing them for a fulfilling and successful career in music.

Classes & activities

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.

The programme uses a range of teaching methods to ensure that students’ learning processes are stimulating, challenging, diverse and complementary. The principal modes of teaching are summarised below::

  • Individual lessons for Principal Study

    Regular one-to-one work with a Principal Study teacher underpins the core aims of the programme. This working environment (which is a defining feature of specialist conservatoire training) is designed to foster the passing on of discipline-specific professional/artistic practices, and to enable students to develop key professional skills that relate directly to their individual abilities and artistry: musical technique, interpretation skills, repertoire building, programme/portfolio building; audition techniques, and so on. Principal Study accounts for 100% of the degree for Prof Dip.

  • Performance classes

    These classes provide a bridge between one-to-one tuition, masterclasses, and concert performances. They allow students to present work-in-progress and receive informal feedback from departmental staff and from their peers.

  • Masterclasses

    Masterclasses provide students with opportunities to present work to students and members of the public). Like performance classes, masterclasses complement one-to-one tuition by widening the range of interpretative judgment to which the students are subject. They are designed to expose students to the very highest international professional standards and provide additional high-profile performance opportunities.

  • Lectures

    Ensemble and Directed Ensemble coaching is the means by which small or large groups of performers receive one-to-one tuition in preparation for concert performances.

  • Seminars

    Seminars are designed to encourage the sharing of ideas and the development of structured arguments and debating skills.

Discovery events

Discovery Events are the perfect way to find out more about the Academy and whether it’s the right place for you.

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A bassist chats with a passer-by in a corridor