Performance opportunities

We offer extensive performing opportunities for students. We support many different kinds of activities, reflecting the all-embracing ideals of our musical interests.

The Performance Studies programmes at Newcastle are innovative and challenging, with an emphasis on combining first class one-to-one tuition with carefully structured training in different kinds of collective performance, providing a solid basis for successful musical practice in the future.

At both undergraduate and postgraduate level, students get the chance to work alongside professional musicians and to perform in public and we run a lively programme of concerts, recitals and gigs throughout the academic year.

Live in the King’s Hall

We have our own professional concert series every Thursday lunchtime during term-time, ’Live in the King’s Hall’, given by world-class professional musicians from a very wide range of music genres and to which entrance is free of charge.

Each Thursday afternoon we run performance workshops and masterclasses and they are followed by a one-hour public Student Performance where students have the chance to perform for, and listen to, their colleagues from all genres – folk, classical, contemporary, jazz and popular.

Staff-supervised ensembles include the likes of:

a full symphony orchestra
chamber choir
jazz ensemble
Newcastle University contemporary music ensemble
free improvisation group
folk choir and other traditional music bands
a brass group, North Indian classical music
a Salsa Band
the New Vocal Ensemble (with a repertoire from medieval to contemporary)
a Viol Consort
rock bands
chamber music groups
and many others

Other ensembles run by and for students include:

a jazz big band
a string orchestra
a wind orchestra
the Brass Ensemble
the Acapella Society
the Gilbert and Sulllivan Society (NUGS)

Performance opportunities in the community

You are also able to take advantage of the huge variety of excellent musical life outside the University, for example at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, where world class music of every kind is performed almost every day (and where students enjoy excellent concessionary ticket prices). The Sage Gateshead is home to the world-class Royal Northern Sinfonia and to Folkworks.

There are also many other venues in the city, mostly within walking distance of the campus, where you can enjoy music of just about any kind. From excellent folk, jazz, rock, pop and free-improvisation to opera, world music, dance and theatre.

Singing

If you are a keen singer, your interests will be well catered for at the International Centre for Music Studies.

Performance opportunities range from solo recitals to participation in ensembles, large or small. The International Centre for Music Studies is home to Newcastle Bach Choir, founded in 1915 by the celebrated Newcastle-born composer WG Whittaker and currently led by Professor Emeritus Eric Cross.

We are also proud of New Vocal Ensemble, an elite group attracting the more dedicated singers at the International Centre for Music Studies and beyond, under the direction of Magnus Williamson. Folk singers join the Vocal Group under the direction of Matt Price, and Head of Performance Larry Zazzo performs a fully-staged Baroque Opera with students every other year, at venues such as the Tyne Theatre and Seaton Delaval.

There are a number of student-led groups catering for popular singing and operetta, including the Acapella Society and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society (NUGS).

The International Centre for Music Studies is proud to work in association with Samling Academy providing opportunities to develop extraordinary singing talent and promoting high-profile performances of opera and other vocal practices.

Singers should also be aware of the choral scholarships offered by St Nicholas Cathedral and by St John's Grainger Street.

Equipment and facilities

We have a large collection of instruments for student use, including orchestral percussion, drum kits, guitar amplifiers and PA equipment, a Gamelan Pelog several Steinway grand pianos, an organ, harpsichord and fortepiano and a number of other early music instruments including a set of viols, baroque bows and sackbuts.

You are also able to take advantage of the huge variety of excellent musical life outside the University, for example at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House, the music series at the historic Lit and Phil library, and The Glasshouse International Centre for Music where world class music of every kind is performed almost every day (and where students enjoy excellent concessionary ticket prices).

The Glasshouse is home to the world-class Royal Northern Sinfonia and Folkworks. There are also dozens of other venues in the city, mostly within walking distance of the campus, where you can enjoy music of just about any kind, from excellent folk, jazz, rock, pop and free-improvisation to opera, world music, dance and theatre.