Course summary

Welcome to the MMus (Traditional Music). You begin your postgraduate studies with the core of your musical personality – the skills, understandings and attitudes that define you as a traditional musician or piper – already established; your postgraduate studies should nurture that existing artistic personality so that you can really make a difference in the fields in which you choose to work. The programme offers advanced training to talented traditional musicians from a diverse range of undergraduate degrees or their equivalent, allowing you to refine and extend your musicianship in the context of your own aspirations. Most importantly, we have designed it so that you take ownership of the learning process throughout the degree and beyond it, whether in the professional world or in higher studies (such as a PhD). Our staff are professional performers, composers, and scholars of Scottish traditional music with active careers. They understand the challenges that you’ll face in your own career, and can provide help and advice as you progress. As well as working with our elite core staff, you’ll get the opportunity to learn from visiting artists and academics from all over the world. There’s a great atmosphere in the department and the Conservatoire as a whole; it’s a close-knit community where you end up performing and gigging with other students and staff, and making friends for life. As for professional and institutional collaborations, we work closely with the National Piping Centre, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and the Celtic Connections festival in delivering a varied and vocationally robust experience for its students. We also possess longstanding exchange agreements with a host of European and North American universities, allowing you to study for a trimester or year abroad – including East Tennessee State University’s world-famous bluegrass and old-time music programme, Sibelius Academy (Finland) and the Irish Music and Dance department of the University of Limerick, among many others. Piping tuition on the MMus is delivered in collaboration with the National Piping Centre, which is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence in Highland Bagpipe teaching. Please note, the international deadline for this programme is the 1st December 2023, but we would encourage applicants to apply by the 2nd October 2023 to be guaranteed consideration for the first round of scholarship.