AST3 Overview
This four-year BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance degree will develop your practical performance and theoretical knowledge.
The first three years of the course develop your skills and explore the context of jazz music. Your final year will focus exclusively on performance and includes an extended recital.
You will join the jazz community and attend weekly jazz workshops, with regular jazz nights on campus. The course encourages you to develop an appreciation of jazz as music of diversity, inclusivity and creativity, and as a collaborative community art form.
On this course you will:
- Have the opportunity to attend regular concerts.
- Hear from guest artist masterclasses, with recent guests including Jason Rebello, Sue McCreeth and Simon Purcell.
- Perform in ensemble work.
- Receive high quality one-to-one tuition in an internationally renowned teaching faculty.
- Explore contextual modules including Jazz Repertoire, Jazz Theory, Jazz History and Postmodern Jazz.
Our mission
Jazz Studies at the University of Chichester aims to provide students with high quality tuition combined with an exciting and enjoyable educational journey that challenges the individual through practical and theoretical skills.
All students within the Music Department have opportunities to become part of the jazz community, whether they are jazz musicians or not, and the curriculum encourages students to develop an appreciation of jazz as music of diversity, inclusivity and creativity. These values underpin the ethos of the teaching and are embedded within the curriculum so our students, who will inherit this growing tradition, foster a lifelong learning attitude to any creative endeavour and can appreciate jazz as a collaborative community art form.
Becky Wolff
Jazz Performance student
The Jazz Department at the University of Chichester is diverse, exciting and very rewarding. With opportunities to perform every week and collaborate with other musicians in and out of the University, you learn a lot in a very short amount of time. The teaching is of the highest quality and from the beginning to the end of your degree you will find yourself part of the jazz family.
Teaching and Assessment
How you will learn
You will study through lecturers, seminars, practical classes and workshops. You will learn from a core team of experienced and qualified tutors alongside a wide-ranging team of more than 60 specialist instrumental and vocal teachers.
You will be assessed through a range of assignments including essays, exams, exhibitions, performance and practical work, project work, presentations and seminar discussions.
Saara Sofia Paakko
Conservatoire student
The atmosphere at the university is lovely due to the small size of the institution, and I love being around like-minded people.
Interviews and Auditions
Auditions and interviews usually run from January until March/April.
We aim to offer you a genuine dialogue during your application process. This gives you a sense of worth and achievement from the audition process itself; a sense of ownership for you during the process and, ultimately, is an opportunity for us to get a clear understanding of who you are, what you need and how we can best prepare you for your degree.
We judge you on your skills, your potential and your personality, not your background.
Charlie
BMus (Hons) Music Performance
I remember sitting in a Music A-Level lesson when I received my email offering me an audition to study BMus (Hons) Music Performance at the University of Chichester. I was immediately terrified of having to choose a piece to perform and to then perform it in front of tutors and other applicants. In the end I needn’t have worried at all, the audition experience was extremely enjoyable and relaxed. I had the best time meeting other prospective students, some of whom became course mates and one even a future housemate! Meeting the Head of Music, Ben Hall, was invaluable as it meant that any questions that I had about the course could be answered. He even gave us a tour of the Chichester campus and the music block which helped put us all at ease before we performed to each other.