Pursue Excellence at a Professional Level
By studying Music at UNSW School of the Arts & Media, you’ll learn that music isn’t just an art form. Music-making requires technical and stylistic mastery and engagement with the key issues that underline the complexity and universality of music. You’ll develop skills in music that are global in their application while enabling you to build a thriving artistic practice at home.
Discover New Ways of Creating & Presenting Music
The music program at UNSW will help you develop the skills and knowledge to make music with confidence, artistic conviction and social commitment. Our program nurtures your aspirations to develop your ability to the highest standards in performing, composing, researching, producing or teaching.
Be Inspired by our Internationally Recognised Academics
UNSW music staff produce high-quality work across the spectrum, from mainstream academic research to creative artistic practice. Their scholarly work is recognised internationally, with our staff publishing, composing, performing and recording in Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK and Europe.
Join our Team of Outstanding Researchers
Music research at UNSW investigates music analytically, culturally, philosophically, psychologically, pedagogically and through practice-based research. We boast international leaders in the Performing Arts, and equally outstanding researchers in Australian Studies and Modernism, Empirical Musicology and Ethnomusicology. Much of our research aligns with the research strengths of other subject areas within the School.
You’ll learn from Performing Arts researchers who are leaders in jazz and improvised music, have recorded many albums, and regularly perform in national and major international festivals. They’re also performers of new classical music at major Australian and international festivals and compose works that are performed by orchestras and major ensembles in Australia, Europe and the US.
A Thriving Community with a Rich History
Music has been a thriving activity at UNSW for over 50 years. The founder of the original Department of Music, Professor Roger Covell, joined the academic staff in 1966 and taught courses across several faculties, established concerts, and developed a chamber opera company and vocal ensembles.
The inauguration of the resident chamber group, the Australia Ensemble, followed in 1980, as well as the university’s Collegium Musicum Choir, and eventually the UNSW Orchestra and the Wind Symphony. With our passionate staff and strong music history at UNSW, we offer an extensive range of courses and performance opportunities for every creative.