Music
Cover: Tom Russell, UCA Epsom
Music
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Introduction
Here at UCA, we’re passionate about music and its connection to culture. Tuition is carried out through small group work in tutorials, workshops and seminars, so you’ll receive personal, attentive training during your time here. We give you the practical and up-to-date skills you will need to work in your chosen area of music. Our staff have industry experience that ensures students learn and have connections with real work settings. For instance, one staff member is an award-winning composer, and another was artists and repertoire manager for top artists at Sony and Universal, and is now an industry consultant and member of the renowned UK Music Skills Academy. Staff have worked for major record labels, media titles, such as The Guardian, Billboard and Kerrang! Universal, and music radio, including BBC Radio 1, Absolute, BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 3. As a student with us, you’ll be stretched, challenged creatively, and shown how to use imaginative solutions. You’ll learn the theoretical context behind your specialism and be encouraged to put your ideas into practice in an inspirational, artistic environment.
You’ll get the chance to make radio and TV packages in collaboration with our media courses, and work on productions with Acting students, or marketing campaigns for Fashion – we encourage cross-course work, as it gives you an edge in creating a strong career portfolio. If you’re studying Music Composition & Technology, you’ll develop your own sound and style within a lively creative community. Whichever course you pick, your time with us will encourage you to become a versatile and deep, creative thinker. With our adventurous approach to study, UCA is the perfect place to start your journey in music.
We excel at magazine publishing (print and online), and the latest developments in music marketing, creating professional web portfolios for our students to graduate with. 3
Find the right course for you
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BA/BSc (Hons) Music Composition & Technology
BA (Hons) Music Marketing & Communication*
UCA Farnham
UCA Epsom
Hannah Schnyder performs at The Museum of Farnham
This innovative course allows you to follow your individual passions while learning the skills required to springboard into any number of careers. In the first year, you’ll explore creative and technical approaches to music composition and sound design, learning the tools of your craft and developing your creative skills through practical projects. In your second year, you have a choice between a number of technical or creative units. This determines whether you graduate with a BSc or BA degree. You’ll also choose either industry placement or collaboration with other UCA courses. The BA route explores music composition and sound design for linear forms in relation to film and animation – it looks at how an environment can be enhanced and created through music and sound. The BSc emphasises the demonstration of technical knowledge and understanding. You’ll work within the domain of music composition and sound design for interactivity, games design, video projection, or audio installations. The primary focus of the final year is your showreel – this will be supported by either a dissertation, or combined written and practical research project. Twitter: @uca_mct Instagram: @uca_mct
With the world’s most recognisable music brands on your doorstep, this course will give you the chance to build a professional network in one of the most competitive and rewarding media professions. In the first year, you’ll look at how the principles of marketing and promotion have been developed to take advantage of new media and technology in an ever-changing and challenging industry. You’ll also examine the visual and cultural history of music – how it fits into the wider social history, and how critical thought can help us deconstruct its deeper meaning and context. In year 2, you’ll gain deeper understanding through professional practice or work placement of the current working structures and operations of global music industries. Working alongside other marketing and business professionals you will explore how music producers and businesses interact. You’ll also explore the concepts of brand development and gain a broad understanding of the power of music and brands. In your final year, you’ll combine these skills, understandings and experience into your final major project, where you’ll demonstrate your understanding of the music marketing industry, of the importance of brand, and how your ideas can be successful. Twitter: @TheWaveUCA *Course subject to validation.
Duration: 3 years full-time UCAS code: C93/W300/F UCAS tariff points: 112
Find out more
Duration: 3 years full-time UCAS code: C93/WN36/E UCAS tariff points: 112
Find out more 5
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“ What drew me to UCA was the proximity to London and the Open Day convinced me. I found the course staff extremely helpful and thought it would be the best place to springboard a career. “ My advice for anyone thinking about taking this course is to start writing as much as possible, as often as possible. The more you write, the better your writing will become. “ Music has been my main passion from a young age, and I’ve always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my heroes, Lester Bangs and Julian Cope, who write about music with such an intensely infectious passion that it’s hard not to get excited. “ Some of the aspects of the course that I really enjoy are making radio and video, as well as anything that allows me to write about things that I’m passionate about. I think being on a course with like-minded people has allowed me to be more confident, and I think that it’s helped my writing to develop a lot more.”
Cal Cashin BA (Hons) Music Journalism, UCA Epsom Graduated 2018
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Your career
The music industry contributes £4.4 billion to the UK economy¹ and employs 140,000 people in the UK¹. It is the world’s third largest music market² and attracts just under 31 million people a year to live performances and festivals¹. With growing demand for talent, graduates can access a diverse range of careers in publishing, advertising, marketing, music production, performance, broadcasting, artist development and in concert promotion. You can also get involved in technical professions within the industry that support the launch of major artists and live performances such as soundtrack production and audio mixing, through to planning radio tours, developing branding and preparing the logistics for music events. You’ll be able to work behind-the-scenes in teams as part of major live events where you’ll build spectacular musical experiences for public gatherings and business receptions. Whether you want to work with musicians, write breaking news, promote bands on their world tours or compose soundtracks and make your own music, you’ll learn the skills with our degree courses to prepare you for a range of careers. You could become an artist manager, a publicist, a music journalist, a production manager as well as a composer, a record producer, a sound engineer or one of many other creative professional roles in the music sector. 8
With our close industry connections, you’ll be able to access competitive work placements and make music business contacts that will support your progression in the industry and help you get your foot in the door. Our previous students have been invited to work on projects for well-known music brands including Kerrang!, XL Recordings, MOJO and Q. UCA graduates have also been offered roles at recognised media organisations including the BBC, London Live, Vice and Absolute Radio. UCA has a proud tradition of supporting students and equipping them with everything they need to thrive in the workplace. 96.9% of our students find employment or go on to further study within the first six months after graduating. ¹Source: ukmusic.org/research/measuring-music-2017 ² Source: International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 2016 annual report
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Portfolio advice
What is a portfolio? A portfolio is a collection of your work that demonstrates your range of skills and creative talent. It’s your opportunity to showcase your individuality, creativity, inspirations and artistic abilities, and a useful way for us to evaluate your suitability for the course you’ve applied to. It might contain design work, drawings, art projects, photographs, films, sound work, music composition, or examples of creative writing or essays. Think of your portfolio as a statement about your work – it should exhibit your creative journey, thought processes and influences. Don’t be afraid to be bold and appeal to a viewer, keeping their attention and leaving them feeling excited about your creative potential.
What should my portfolio include? Your portfolio should feature examples of your research and show the development of your ideas and projects – this should be highly presentable and well organised. It may be useful to arrange your work into themes, styles or chronological order, demonstrating good organisational skills and your own artistic awareness. Make sure you show your passion for the subject – look into your favourite composers, artists and performers and the other things they make. Show us your passion for music, whether it’s pieces you’ve composed yourself, gigs you’ve been to, magazines you’ve read or people who inspire you. Your portfolio should exhibit your creative journey, thinking processes and individual personality, so we can assess your potential. It’s important to show both your inspirations and aspirations, as your portfolio says a lot about you and your creative identity. Documenting the development of your ideas in a sketchbook is a great way to show us how you approached the task of creating your work, giving us insight into your creative thinking and how you approach your subject. Make sure your portfolio is well presented. Our tutors only have a short amount of time to look through each portfolio, so you need to organise your work intelligently. We recommend that you include between 10 and 25 pieces of work, neatly mounted on white or off-white paper in either landscape or portrait format (not a mixture of both).
Find out more The course pages at uca.ac.uk provide clear guidance on what we’d like to see in your portfolio for each of our courses. We’ve also put together a set of videos talking you through the process: uca.ac.uk/study/portfolio-advice 10
Put some of your most attention-grabbing and interesting work at the front and lead us through your journey, showcasing a variety of skills, materials, techniques and influences – it could include paintings, drawings, photography, digital pieces, storyboards, animation images or written work. If you include audio or moving image work, we recommend a maximum of two minutes’ running time. Highlight your favourite pieces too, and indicate what or who inspires you.
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Laura Copley, UCA Epsom
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Front Cover
Gino Franks, UCA Epsom
G.Y.C.
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“ I have always loved studying music and always will. It’s a subject I’ve always had a lot of passion for and tried to understand. The thought of being a journalist within the world of music thoroughly excites me as it means I’ll speak with various musicians about their music and regularly attend gigs and festivals and be able to write about them for a good magazine, like Noisey or DIY. “ One of my favourite projects so far on the course has been the radio brief, which examined a completely different aspect of music journalism. It’s easy to see music journalism as a course that only specialises in magazine writing but it was fun to be able to be a lot more hands-on and investigate. “ I’ve applied to study abroad next year because I want to be able to develop my CV as a music journalist as much as possible. Having the opportunity to study this course in a different country, with a different culture will be great. I think it’s good to have a range of experience and I believe studying abroad is one of the biggest benefits that studying at UCA gives you. “ I feel like since starting here I’ve really morphed into an adult; I’m constantly thinking about my career and ways to improve myself as a music journalist, trying to find ways to be ahead of the game when it comes to experience. I have definitely changed since being at UCA – I haven’t lost sight of who I was before, rather I’ve expanded on the old me and made myself ten times better.”
Laviea Thomas BA (Hons) Music Journalism, UCA Epsom Year 3
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Lydia Smedley, UCA Epsom
Course leaders
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Chris Parles
Dr J Harry Whalley
Acting Course Leader for BA (Hons) Music Marketing & Communication
Course leader for BA/BSc (Hons) Music Composition & Technology
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UCA Epsom
UCA Farnham
As the Acting Course Leader for our Music Marketing and Music Journalism courses, Chris brings with him extensive experience in the music industry. As a senior A&R executive at Virgin EMI, Sony and Universal Music Group, he delivered number one selling albums and singles, working with artists, songwriters and producers such as Blue, Atomic Kitten, Robert Plant, Natalie Imbruglia, Lemar, Diane Warren, Gary Barlow, Rob Davis and Cathy Dennis.
Harry is an award-winning composer whose music spans across genre – including Jazz, orchestral electronic and film music – and has been performed on BBC Radio 3. Prior to UCA he previously taught at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Edinburgh University.
During his time at Universal he was head of A&R for the BBC/Endemol reality series, Fame Academy. He went on to work for Universal Music Group in Shanghai, China, consulting on A&R and Marketing for China’s most popular television show, Wor Xing Wor Show. Chris also delivers courses and workshops for clients including Universal Music Group, The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Sony Electronics, EA games (LA), eBay and Pernod Ricard, ranging from music industry specialisms to executive and business creativity and innovation. He is a Senior Fellow of Higher Education, a Consultant at Music Tank and a board member of UK Music Skills Academy, helping to further integrate music education and industry.
His background as a Jazz pianist and arranger, studying under Nikki Isles and Malcolm Edmonstone, has led him to work with musicians and ensembles such as Ron Davis (symphRONica), Chris Grieve (Scottish Jazz Orchestra) and Emma Smith (Gorillaz) among others. His film music has also been shown across the world including LA, London, Berlin and Palm Springs, with his score for the feature length documentary about Sir Chris Bonington opening the famous Banff mountain festival in Canada. After his first degree in Jazz, Harry went on to receive a Bucher-Fraser Scholarship and was awarded an MMus in composition with distinction by the University of Edinburgh. He received a full AHRC PhD that was passed in 2014 without correction. Harry holds the prestigious position as the ‘composer in residence’ at St. Vincent’s chapel and is represented by the CMC.
Chris’ key research interests include corporate creativity and innovation, music marketing practice, and the history of music business. 17
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Shannon Cotton, UCA Epsom
“ I chose to come to UCA because of its close proximity to London – I knew from researching the field that the city is where a lot of the job opportunities are and Epsom was closest to that. “ Music has always dominated my life and been at the forefront of everything I’ve done since the age of 12, when I went to my first festival. English and Media were always my favourites at school, so to combine my love of music and writing seemed the perfect combination. “ The staff on the course are amazing because they have so much experience in the industry. You can go to them with any questions or queries and they do their utmost to help you as much as they can, their office door is always open, even if you just want to pop in for a chat. “ My time at UCA has been the best three years of my life, I have learnt so much and had so much fun whilst doing so.”
Shannon Cotton BA (Hons) Music Journalism, UCA Epsom Graduated 2017
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Our facilities
Epsom
Farnham
UCA Epsom is renowned as a major centre for fashion, music journalism and graphic design. Our resources provide students with the right ingredients for successful study including modern IT facilities, an Equipment Hire Department, inspiring teaching areas, gallery space, a library, supportive teaching staff and a programme of guest speakers.
UCA Farnham has extensive purpose-built facilities for over 2,000 students studying a wide range of creative arts subject areas including film, performing arts, journalism, graphic design, animation and many other courses.
Other facilities on campus include: –– Access to video cameras, stills cameras and digital recorders from the Equipment Hire Department. –– T wo dedicated large teaching rooms/studios furnished with computers and printers –– D edicated studio space equipped with both Macs and PCs, programmed with the latest industry-standard, specialist software –– Sound studio with equipped sound booth
Resources are available to all students, regardless of their course. Resources for music composition and technology students include: –– Dedicated IT suite with industry-standard software –– Foley studio –– ProTools facilities –– E xtensive equipment store for hiring cameras, microphones and video equipment as well as laptops and projectors
–– D igital print studio with large and small format printing, bookbinding, guillotine, perfect binding
–– Scanning and printing facilities
–– S creen print studio for traditional printing onto a wide range of media
–– A ccess to the Media Resource Centre for printing and publishing.
–– F ive fully-equipped photographic studios with digital processing and finishing facilities and full industry-standard lighting rigs –– Laser cutter and desktop 3D printer.
–– Access to industry design software
Our Farnham campus is also currently undergoing a large building project – our Film & Media Centre, due to be completed in December 2018. The brand-new build will feature state-of-the-art, custom designed studios and theatres, including: –– A 250-seat lecture theatre with 4k projection facilities –– B lack box studio with Arri Skypanel lighting, makeup space and retractable bleachers –– L ive room for band performance with instruments provided (pianos, drums, keyboards, etc.)
Please note, access to each campus and its resources can sometimes depend on the campus you choose to study at. For example, you may be using the facilities at the campus where your course is based but not always at others – this depends on your course. 20
–– C ontrol room for sound mixing, with Audient producer desk, synthesizer and Apogee Symphony MK II audio interface –– D ubbing theatre for configuring sound mixes to picture, with Avid Pro Tools control surface and software.
Next steps
How to apply The course you choose determines how you apply – this could be through UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) or directly to UCA. Find out more uca.ac.uk/study/how-to-apply ucas.com/apply Contact us If you’ve got any queries regarding the admissions process or your application, please contact the relevant admissions team: UK/EU admissions T: +44 (0)1252 892 960 E: admissions@uca.ac.uk International admissions T: +44 (0)1252 892 785 E: internationaladmissions@uca.ac.uk Connect with us @UniCreativeArts facebook.com/ucreativearts @unicreativearts @unicreativearts youtube.com/unicreativearts #WeCreate blog.uca.ac.uk social.uca.ac.uk Join us at #UCAlive We run live Q&A sessions where you can ask us anything you like about what it’s like to live and study here at UCA. Visit uca.ac.uk/live to find out about our next #UCAlive session.
Disclaimer The information in this brochure is believed to be correct at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to introduce changes to the information given including the addition, withdrawal, relocation or restructuring of any programmes. The information in this brochure is subject to change and does not form part of any contract between UCA and the student and his/her sponsor. For up-to-date and more detailed information on any of our courses and studying at UCA, please visit uca.ac.uk 1035-0318