Home Courses Stage and Screen BA (Hons) Music Performance (Film Acting)
'My One and Only' production

Train in singing or instrumental performance alongside television and screen acting

UCAS LogoUCAS Logo
WW3P
3 years Full Time
Bishop Otter Campus (Chichester)

Top 5

for courses and lecturers

National Student Survey 2021

Top 30

UK University

Guardian University Guide 2021

16th

for student experience

Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021

Join us at one of our Open Days!

Saturday 22 June  |  Saturday 12 October  |  Friday 1 November  |  Saturday 23 November

Saturday 22 June

Saturday 12 October

Friday 1 November

Saturday 23 November

Our next Open Day is in:

Day
Hour
Minute
Second

Overview

Important

This course has been renamed from BA (Hons) Musical Performance and Acting for Film for 2023.

This BA (Hons) Music Performance and Acting for Film degree trains you in singing or instrumental performance alongside practical skills in television and screen acting. You will join one of the most extensive musical performance programmes in the UK and have opportunities to audition for our six orchestras, nine other large ensembles, five choirs and more than 70 small ensembles, and to take part in performance projects while honing the craft of acting on screen. 

This course is delivered by highly experienced practitioners in musical performance and in film and television acting.

On this course you will:

  • Train in singing or instrumental performance.
  • Develop your acting skills in television and screen acting.
  • Join a selection of our six orchestras, nine other large ensembles, five choirs and more than 70 small ensembles to take part in performance work on campus, within the region and on regular overseas tours.
  • Learn from highly experienced practitioners in musical performance and in film and television acting.

Partnerships

Spotlight logo

Music Performance and Film Acting at Chichester

Teaching and Assessment

How you will learn

You will complete theoretical and practical study in most of your modules. Your typical study week will include performance technique classes, lectures, seminars, tutorials, studio-based workshops and application of practice.

Outside of scheduled classes you will complete independent study including researching texts, completing individual or group tasks and working on your assignments.

Alice Morris

Student
"What separates the degree at Chichester from other courses is how practical and ‘hands on’ it is. I’m always working on creative projects and developing skills. I’m taught by people who already work in the industry and that helps me think professionally about my work and my future."

The Course

What you will study

You will study a selection of core and optional modules in each year. Each module is worth a number of credits is delivered differently, depending on its content and focus of study.

This list is indicative and subject to change.

Select a year

Ensemble

You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity. You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.

Iconoclasts to Icons

You will explore the importance of observing and contrasting Screen Acting technique and styles through lectures and screenings and will be expected to articulate the context of performances in group discussion.

Introduction to Film Industry

This module walks you through the various paradigms within the film industry and the use of filmic devices for dramatic and expressive intention.

Masterclass

This module develops your basic performance and communication skills and your sense of performance context. You will develop your repertoire, your understanding of style and your skill in preparing for audition or performance.

Performance Development

This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.

Professional Resilience

This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Screen Acting 1

This module explores the complete timeline of a screen acting performance; from initial preparation through to final delivery. You will examine aspects of performance practice relevant to your individual choice of discipline development.

Classicism

This module will consider the Classical style in music primarily through the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Special consideration will be given to problems of formal analysis and the application of the conventions of a musicology to an artistic period so much defined by the work of a very small group of outstanding composers.

You will study a variety of work: solo, ensemble and orchestral, sacred and secular. You will undertake the preparation of a presentation or lecture recital relating to a movement from a late 18th century work, as chosen by the individual.

Ensemble

You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity. You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.

Film Story

In this module, you will use weekly film study to explore the elements needed in the creation of story, specifically in the process of devising for film. Through analysis and criticism, you will broaden your understanding of the connections between film making and performance.

History of Modern Jazz

This module will look at jazz from two perspectives.

Initially, the module will look at the history of jazz, starting with its birth in New Orleans and examining its stylistic developments concentrating on a number of key figures and movements in its evolution up to present day. However by the 1960’s, the free jazz movement began to blur the boundaries and definitions of what jazz is.

Therefore, this module will also address the issue of the process that jazz has fore grounded as an evolving art form which constantly borrows from other musical influences to create ever-renewing hybrid forms of music. In looking at these two perspectives, the answer to the question ‘what is jazz?’ will be clarified alongside an appreciation for its rich and varied musical legacy.

Music and Society

This module will explore a range of topics, including:

  • The canon
  • Music and gender
  • Music and mediation
  • Music and education
  • Music and cultural identity
  • Popular and elite traditions.

You will be encouraged to discuss your own positioning and understanding within each of these subject areas, as well as drawing upon a variety of social and cultural theories including those held within musicology.

Music and the Community 1: Music and the Mind

This module considers how music defines and identify communities. Through an exploration of your own relationship with music, you will analyse the nature of musical experience and perception, with reference to selected musical texts.

You will identify and discuss functions of music that extend beyond entertainment. This will include examining the esoteric functions of music, shamanic practice, music and ritual, healing and therapeutic functions of music and concept of “”communitas””.

As part of this, you will examine the musical techniques that develop within such functions, including: overtone singing, collective improvisation, group drumming, chanting, vocal improvisation, intuitive harmonic voice work and interactive composition.

Performance Anxiety

Examine the problem of performance anxiety and stage nerves and study the theoretical background and how to effectively deal with anxiety.

You will look at the performance itself and the surrounding physiological and psychological factors that lead to stage nerves during performance.

This module introduces a wide range of theories from relevant disciplines including cognitive behavioural therapy and neuro-linguistic programming.

Performance Development

This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.

Preparing Young Musicians for Assessment and Performance

The practical, placement experience allows you to become a beginner all over again by learning a ‘new’ instrument during this term, recreating the feelings experienced by beginners.

Reflections on this experience will inform and shape your approach to teaching in placement contexts.

You will also observe school children in the early stages of learning to sing and will reflect on how the observations relate to their personal experience during the module. Various repertoire, aural tests, scales, and sight reading will be included in a broad exploration of assessment and discussions will cover the pressures or constraints that exams place on students.

Professional Resilience

This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Reading Popular Music

You will explore key critical texts and concepts such as authenticity, anthropology, ethnography and textual analysis, applying these to a variety of models in contemporary popular music.

Screen Acting 2

This module explores the role and importance of group communication within practice, as you analyse your own skills and knowledge around performance techniques.

The Baroque

You will explore a broad range of musical genres, ideas, styles and constructional devices from the birth of opera in 1600, through the rapid development of concerti grossi, the mass and the oraotorio, to the seminal theoretical and compositional writings of Jean-Phillippe Rameau.

The Roots of Jazz

You will explore the roots of jazz and focus on the development of jazz between 1890 and 1930 as you critically analyse the social, political and cultural context in New Orleans.

Through the Lens

In this module, you will dissect and discuss the way in which actors interpret scripted characters to create a screen performance that is further moulded by a director.

Arranging for Jazz

You will develop your ability to take standard repertoire from the jazz canon and rearrange it into your own personal vision, which is a key skill within the jazz domain. You will develop a personal repertoire of arrangements and compositions to prepare you to secure gigs in the future.

Classics On Film

You will be challenged to fully research, prepare, rehearse and film a short monologue or duologue from a choice of scenes from classical works.

You will be encouraged to display attention to detail in terms of vocal and physical characterisation. Furthermore, they will meet predetermined technical camera requirements in your performance.

In addition, you will learn the arts blocking, sequencing and eye-line to maximise the relationship with the camera and screen audience.

Club Music

Examine how music is used in clubs, the motivations of clubbers themselves, and the development of the role of the DJ.

You will consider the way technology has shaped the experience of club music, and how legal and marketing issues have shaped its consumption.

You are encouraged to explore the influence of club culture on mainstream commercial music, and the significance of symbols associated with a variety of club cultures and subcultures.

Communicating Music Through Movement & Gesture

This module explores the opportunities that exist for enhanced communication within the formal performance context, using the performer’s own physical projection of self and personal narrative of intention.

Work will also be developed in a broader context, allowing a deeper understanding of the semiotics of movement – the kinesic variables which impact upon the viewer – and the generic codes which attach to the music they play.

Ensemble

You will produce a professional standard performance, demonstrating confidence within your chosen repertoire(s) and technical and expressive maturity. You will need an appropriate balance in programming and the ability to lean towards either a supporting or leadership role and develop your skills in hosting events and presenting the work to others.

Film Combat

In this module, you will organise, prepare, rehearse, perform in and edit a short filmed fight sequence. You will be encouraged to display attention to detail in terms of vocal and physical characterisation. You will have access to film and sound equipment as well as editing facilities.

Group Teaching

You will engage in workshop activities to explore the potential of strategies and material that could be used in a range of teaching contexts.

You will reflect on relationships between this activity and your practical workshop experience and complete practical experience with a musical group/class/ensemble at the university, a school, or a performance centre where you will observe the methods, manner, and style of the teacher and then design a piece for that group.

Introduction to Fundraising in the Arts

The module will consider the third-sector in relation to the other two sectors, the legal structures for non-profit organisations and regional variations in regulation, alongside the charity model in at least one other country.

Musical Event

You will focus on one or more major performance projects which will involve opportunities to work creatively with a variety of ensembles and collaborations, including those which cross arts disciplines. Connections will be made with current projects in other institutions and at performance venues outside the university.

One to One Teaching

This module introduces a range of techniques in structuring lessons, communicating expressive and performance based concepts and problem solving designed to create an exciting and stimulating learning experience for individual singers, dancers and actors embarking on the early stages of study.

You will set your own goals in teaching and develop skills in analysing and measuring the outcomes of lessons, using this information to inform planning for effective teaching practices.

Opera

This module takes a chronological approach to the study of the genre, beginning with the early Baroque and offering examples of differing musical styles up until the first half of the 20th century, with a particular focus on the late 18th to mid 19th centuries.

The relationship between narrative and the musical expression of dramatic tension will be explored.

Your lectures will make connections between the function of musical structure and form within individual works and the development of character and plot.

Performance Development

This includes your 1 to 1 tuition in your selected instrumental or vocal study.

Personal Study

You will have an opportunity to select an area of study of your choice over an extended period, to research and present their findings in written form.

Personal Study (Recital)

This module sees you select an area of study in performance, and develop it over an extended period.

For performers, this is an opportunity to present a longer and more challenging programme of work.

Personal Study (Written)

This module provides you with an opportunity to select an area of study of your choice, to research it and present your findings in written form, and to develop this over an extended period.

Post Modern Jazz

You will seek to find answers in a postmodern jazz world and ask if the intrinsic identity of jazz has been lost and where it can go from here. You will gain an understanding of its evolution since Coltrane by listening, playing, and analysing jazz from the 50’s to the present day. 

Professional Resilience

This module will explore a range of different strategies designed to offer support to the emerging arts practitioner and will introduce students to a number of different models of successful self-development.

Romanticism

This module will develop your confident and probing analytical style with a close exploration of compositional intention, particularly where this is allied to programmatic or narrative elements in the models you study.

Screen Acting 3

The importance of achieving high standards of creativity and communication within performance work will be emphasized in group lessons and in formative performance assessment.

Discussion about performance practice relevant to your individual choice of or combination of discipline development, will help in focusing ideas and planning in relation to career aspirations.

Structures and Politics of Rock Music

You will examine a broad range of contemporary musical texts to develop a broad definition of rock culture and use an in-depth study of a selection of significant artists and groups to provide insights into a range of stylistic and structural devices employed by rock musicians.

You will learn to demonstrate the political space inhabited by their music and complete creative tasks in song-writing and collaborative composition and improvisation.

The Four Hander Project

You will be challenged to fully research, prepare and rehearse all four roles in both scenes then perform one of the roles in one of the scenes at very short notice for filming in a multi-camera set-up. Furthermore, they will be challenged to meet predetermined blocking and technical camera requirements in that performance.

A professional approach to rehearsal will be encouraged and you will be required to keep a written log of all information needed to effectively take part in the live filmed performance in any of the given roles.

At the conclusion of the module, you will have acquired a filmed scene for their show reel for future employability.

Facilities

Use industry standard spaces and equipment

This programme is mainly taught at our Chichester campus and is located in one of the largest music departments in the UK, with enviable teaching, performance and practice resources.

You will also use the 350-seater Alexandra Theatre in Bognor Regis, on campus recital and orchestral performance spaces and a range of external venues in the UK and overseas.

The Bognor Regis campus is seven miles from the Bishop Otter campus and is connected by frequent buses. Our students therefore have access to both an historic cathedral city and an iconic south-coast seaside resort!

Study Abroad

Explore the opportunity to study part of your course abroad

As a student at the University of Chichester, you can explore opportunities to study abroad during your studies as you enrich and broaden your educational experiences.

Students who have undertaken this in the past have found it to be an amazing experience to broaden their horizons, a great opportunity to meet new people, undertake further travelling and to immerse themselves within a new culture.

You will be fully supported throughout the process to help find the right destination institution for you and your course. We can take you through everything that you will need to consider, from visas to financial support, to help ensure that you can get the best out of your time studying abroad.

Careers

Where you could go after your studies

This BA (Hons) Music Performance and Acting for Film degree will prepare you for your future career. You will have the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills to enhance your CV and your employability.

As performers, alumni have gone into:

  • West End productions (as stage performers, musical directors and pit musicians)
  • UK and International small-scale touring theatre
  • ​Film and TV in both the UK and US
  • Edinburgh Festival
  • Cabaret
  • Role including stage managers, arts managers and producers picking up contracts in the UK and around the world
  • Commercial or independent film production
  • Commercial television
  • Video production

Further Study

You could choose to continue your studies at postgraduate level.

Study options at the University of Chichester include:

  • MA Music Performance
  • MA Music Teaching
  • PGCE
  • PhD/MPhil

University of Chichester alumni who have completed a full undergraduate degree at the University will receive a 15% discount on their postgraduate fees.

Course Costs

Course Fees 2024/25

UK fee
£9,250
International fee
£15,840

For further details about fees, please see our Tuition Fee page.

For further details about international scholarships, please see our Scholarships page.

To find out about any additional costs on this course, please see our Additional Costs page.

Entry Requirements

Typical offers (individual offers may vary):

UCAS
96-112
tariff points from A levels or combination with AS / EPQ / BTEC/ Cambridge Technical.
BTEC
MMM
IB
26 points
IELTS
6.0
with no element lower than 5.5.

Auditions

You will need to demonstrate your ability in an instrument or voice and display musical awareness and skill in a performance audition. Applicants with high levels of performance skills may be considered for a lower academic offer.

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.

Booking Your Audition

If you are invited to audition you will receive an email asking you to book your audition date on ChiView. If you are unsuccessful we will email you to let you know.

You can usually choose between multiple days on ChiView at one time. If none of the current dates suit you please contact admissions@chi.ac.uk.

Once you have booked your audition, you will be able to access the audition guidance document on ChiView – just log into the ChiView portal, click on ‘Events schedule’ and then ‘View details’ to access the document, which will tell you how to prepare for your audition, what to expect on the day, etc.

If your situation changes and you can no longer attend your audition date, you should cancel your booking in ChiView by visiting your ‘Event Schedule’ and clicking ‘Cancel Attendance’. You also need to inform the admissions team by emailing admissions@chi.ac.uk, so we can send you a new audition invitation.

Using ChiView 

Sometimes if you are viewing your ChiView portal on a phone you will not be able to see the page correctly. If this happens you should try again on another device.

You may need to clear your browser history. 

If you are still unable to see the ‘View details’ button, please check that you have successfully booked your audition by clicking ‘respond to interview invitation’.

If all else fails please email admissions@chi.ac.uk with your query and applicant number.

Your Audition Day

Once you have booked your audition, please log into the ChiView portal, click on ‘Events schedule’ and then ‘View details’ to access the audition guidance document, which will tell you (amongst other things) what will happen at the audition itself, a basic itinerary of the whole day, parking information, etc.

In brief, there should be an introductory talk by the department, the chance to meet lecturers and other applicants, as well as your opportunity to perform for the audition panel.

After Your Audition

After your audition, the panel will discuss your performance and pass our decision onto the admissions team, who will update UCAS and email you with the outcome, whatever it might be.

  • We make bespoke offers: Your offer is specifically for you. If we offer less than your predicted grades, this will reflect the potential and quality of your audition and we’d like to take a bit of pressure off of you heading into your exams.
  • We don’t do unconditional offers: Unless you already have your grades (you are a mature student), we will always insist on certain grade achievements because we want you to succeed in all aspects of your academic life including your A levels, BTEC, etc.
  • If you do not get the grades you wanted: Don’t panic. You received an offer because you were good enough for the department at audition. On Results Day, just ring us on the clearing hotline, so we can discuss things with you.
  • We may offer you a different course: We may offer you a place on an alternative, relevant course within the department, rather than offer you the course you applied for. If this is the case, we will state this in your offer letter/email and update your course on UCAS. We will explain our reasoning, which will revolve around placing you on the most appropriate course where we think you will thrive.

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 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.”

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

How do I apply?

Click the ‘Apply now’ button to go to relevant UCAS page.

What are UCAS tariff points?

Many qualifications have a UCAS Tariff value. The score depends on the qualification, and the grade you achieved.

How do I know what my UCAS tariff points are?

Head to the UCAS Tariff Points web page where you can find a tariff points calculator that can tell you how much your qualification and grades are worth.

Our address

For visits

I’m looking for