Jazz – BMus

The recent launch of our Eastside Jazz Club has helped consolidate the integral role that Royal Birmingham Conservatoire has to play in a major UK city that enjoys a thriving jazz scene. While Birmingham’s jazz scene has been established over many years, our bespoke new venue strengthens the promise of an exciting future for Jazz in the city.

Our Jazz Department is based around the Club, where student musicians share a platform and get invaluable side-by-side performance experience with the best on the scene, whom we welcome to our stage on a regular basis.

This course meets with the needs of the modern jazz performer – it places emphasis on practical work, with the majority of time dedicated to one-to-one lessons, small group coaching and private practice. You’ll study modules that have been specifically and skilfully designed for jazz musicians, and as part of your learning we encourage you to explore in depth the relationship between improvisation and composition, which is central to developing your individual voice. You will graduate as a versatile, professional musician who is knowledgeable about the entrepreneurial opportunities available to you, and aware of the commercial realities for musicians joining today’s UK jazz scene as a portfolio musician.

Delivered by performers, band leaders and composers who enhance their teaching with professional experience, insights and connections, the course hones both your performance and professional awareness. As well as having our own club that has taken its place on Birmingham’s vibrant jazz scene, our students enjoy professional experience opportunities with external gigs that familiarise them with the industry – for example through our partnership with Cheltenham Jazz Festival – one of many ways we prepare you for the future.

What’s covered in the course?

You will be taught by performers, band leaders and composers, who are ideally placed to share their professional experience, insights and connections. With their guidance, you will hone both your performance skills and your professional awareness.

Why Choose Us?

• You will work with some of the greatest musicians and study on modules that  have been specifically and skilfully designed for jazz musicians.
• You will experience significantly more one-to-one tuition time than on a typical academic university music course – or indeed any other conservatoire courses.
• Your course is professionally supported by Jazzlines, a leading jazz promoter and key contact for international masterclasses.
• Our course prepares you for a portfolio career on the contemporary music scene, with performance at its centre. It will also give you transferrable skills, including team-working, adaptability, self-promotion, time management and critical thinking.
• You’ll have full access to our superb £57 million facilities, including our Concert Hall, 150-seat Recital Hall, our black box performance space known as The Lab, seven recording studios, and more than 70 practice rooms, ensemble rooms and workshops; all acoustically designed to provide a music-making environment that is world-class.
• We are proud to be a festival partner of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival; a partnership that gives our students an insight into how festivals are run, and some invaluable performance opportunities.
• We have countless partnerships and long-established professional relationships with organisations including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Orchestra of the Swan and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• You’ll have full access to our superb £57 million facilities, including our Concert Hall, 150-seat Recital Hall, our black box performance space known as The Lab, seven recording studios, and more than 70 practice rooms, ensemble rooms and workshops; all acoustically designed to provide a music-making environment that is world-class.
• Last year our musicians collectively earned over £50,000 by being hired to play at events through our Book a Musician service.