Performance Opportunities
The Department of Music’s commitment to eclectic and high quality performance is unrivalled amongst Universities. This is reflected in the number of graduates who have made a professional career from their music making. In return, the Department demands from its students a high level of commitment to the various groups that it runs as well as encouraging students to form their own ensembles.
The main performing opportunities offered by the Department of Music are as follows:
- Goldsmiths Sinfonia
- Goldsmiths Chorus
- Chamber Choir
- Chamber Music Groups
- Choral Scholarships
- Composers' Forum
- Contemporary Music Ensemble
- EMS Concerts
- Music Collective
- Vocal Group
- Lunchtime & Evening Recitals
- Live Events at the Students’ Union
Goldsmiths Sinfonia and Chorus
Goldsmiths Sinfonia and Chorus have gained a considerable reputation for the high quality of their performances under the direction of professional conductors. Their successful policy of promoting twentieth-century music has entailed many premières of works by living composers such as Nicola Lefanu, Giles Swayne, Edwin Roxburgh, Edward Gregson and Sadie Harrison. Works performed include Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Bartok's Piano Concerto No 1 (with Andrew Zolinsky) and Brahms’ German Requiem. Works for 2008/09 included Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet, Lukas Foss: Renaissance Concerto (with Laura Jay, flute soloist) and Handel: The King Shall Rejoice. The programme for 2010 will be Mossolov: Zavod, Khachaturian: Piano Concerto (with Magdalena Krzyzanowska, piano solo), Shostakovich: Symphony No 9 and Prokofiev: Seven, they are seven (with the Chamber Choir), with performances at Goldsmiths and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. Students are able to audition to perform concerti with the Sinfonia and are encouraged to audition in Term 3.
The Goldsmiths Sinfonia performs in Music Week and in the Autumn and Spring Terms. Goldsmiths Chorus will perform in Music Week and we strongly encourage our MMus students to perform.
Chamber Choir
Conducted by Tim Hooper.
The Chamber Choir will be performing a programme of Russian Music in Term 1, with a performance in the Queen Elizabeth Hall (with the Goldsmiths Sinfonia) plus the annual College-wide Christmas Concert.
Chamber Music Ensembles
The Department supports a variety of chamber music ensembles, both as components of taught courses and beyond the curriculum. Students are strongly encouraged to form their own ensembles, and should discuss this with relevant full-time staff and their individual teachers. Ensembles are welcome to book rehearsal space, subject to the constraints of other teaching. The library and the Department both maintain stocks of chamber music parts and vocal scores, and it may be possible to hire or buy requested other works, funds permitting.
Choral Scholarships are available for the 2009-10 Academic Year, in conjunction with St. Margaret's, Lee, for Undergraduate students on the BMus Music and BMus Popular Music Degrees. For further information and an application form, please email music
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Directed by Roger Redgate/Ian Gardiner/Jeremy Peyton Jones
The Contemporary Music Ensemble reflects the Department's acknowledged expertise in twentieth-century studies and gives two formal concerts each year. It has given a number of first performances by both student and established composers. Its repertoire has a wide stylistic base, including works by Ligeti, Berio, Cardew, Reich, Ives, Monk, Riley, Feldman, Cage, Andriessen and Bryars. The ensemble changes direction in the later Terms, in December 2009 the group performed pieces and arrangements by Dave Smith and Frank Zappa, amongst others.
Composers' Forum
Co-ordinator: Roger Redgate
Two concerts in the second and third Terms provide opportunities for all students (both Undergraduate and Postgraduate) to have their own compositions performed by their fellow students in a formal setting.
Electronic Music Studios concerts
Co-ordinators: Michael Young, John Drever, Ian Stonehouse
EMS concerts provide opportunities for students (both Undergraduate and Postgraduate) to have studio-based work performed, including work involving performers (either fellow students or established performers). Preference is given to course-related work although any student may submit a piece for consideration. We also support the Interlace concert series, organised by Sebastian Lexer.
Music Collective
Directed by Simon Deacon
This group focuses on performance as a creative form, drawing from urban, dance, avant-garde and jazz repertoire. Players are encouraged to write and arrange for the collective, the line up is flexible and encourages experimentation, improvisation and the use of new technologies.
Vocal Group
Directed by Eska Mtungwazi
The vocal group sings a range of repertoire from the gospel, jazz, and popular repertoire. Students are encouraged to submit arrangements/original compositions for the group. The Vocal Group also performs outside the College, including at Ronnie Scott’s and with the Matthew Herbert Big Band at the Royal Festival Hall, on London’s South Bank.
Review of the Vocal Group performing at The Barbican
Live Events at the Students’ Union / Simon Says
The Department has an arrangement with Goldsmiths Students’ Union to provide a range of live shows/events across the year. This is a fantastic opportunity to play a wide range of material in front of around 800 people; performers usually receive a small fee. Previous events have included concert versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween, a soul music night, ‘unplugged’ and contemporary jazz gigs. Students can either audition to be involved in an event or put forward their own projects for consideration.
Lunchtime & Evening recitals
Concerts take place on Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes and Tuesday evenings. Recitals range from solo to ensemble performances by both students and professional musicians. Students are asked to supply programmes for the following term and are then contracted to perform. A relaxed atmosphere prevails during these concerts and students are free to come and go and even (quietly) to have lunch. In addition, students are encouraged to put on their own recitals.
Music Week
It has been a tradition at Goldsmiths for many years that new students are introduced to the Department at the beginning of the Academic Year with a week of intensive orchestral and choral rehearsals that culminate in the opening concert of the season. Participation is compulsory for all full-time Music undergraduate students and those taking the Extension Degree.
The programme for Music Week 2009, conducted by Alexander Ivashkin included music by Haydn, Gubaidulina, Mendelssohn-Korngold and Prokofiev.
Music Week 2010 will be conducted by Gregory Rose and will be an all-American programme of music by Copland, Bernstein, Barber, Gershwin and Charles Ives.
Students from the Popular Music course performed with the Matthew Herbert Big Band in the run up to the Resound @ The Barbican event in October 2009. (see review from The Times above), for Music Week 2010, it will be a devised music project featuring all three years of the BMus in Popular Music students, featuring visiting artist Charlie Dark.
PureGold Festival
At the end of Term 3 the Department organises PureGold: a six-week festival of student performances and showcases. In 2010, there were over 50 performances including concerts by the Wind Band, Electronic Music Ensembles, six nights of shows created by final year PM Creative Performance students at The Albany Theatre, plus chamber and solo performers. The end of year opera in 2010 was Verdi's Rigoletto. Previous operas include Britten: Peter Grimes, Mozart: The Magic Flute and Le Nozze di Fiagaro, Bizet: Carmen, John Blow: Venus and Adonis and Purcell: Dido and Aeneas.
Department Ensembles-in-Residence
The Department of Music regularly employs visiting professional musicians as Ensembles-in-Residence, whose work underpins composition and performance activities throughout the year. For the 2010-11 academic year, the Ensemble-in-Residence will include the Allegri String Quartet.
Performance Administrator – Imogen Burman
All performances are co-ordinated by the Department’s Performance Administrator, Imogen Burman. Information about up-coming events can be found on the notice boards situated around the department, on learn.gold and on the Department’s website. If you have any queries regarding performance events, please contact Imogen in room 263, either via email or on 020 7919 7645.
Please see our Events Diary for details of scheduled events.