MPhil in Music (Performance)
About the course
The MPhil is designed for students wishing to attain a thorough grounding in musical performance studies at an advanced level, either as a preparation for doctoral research or an autonomous qualification. In the first year you will follow the MSt in Music (Performance), proceeding in the second year to individual supervision leading to the completion of a recital and a dissertation.
The Master of Philosophy in Music (Performance) introduces a broad range of current methodologies and approaches in music scholarship.
Year one
The first year of the course is identical to that of the MSt in Music (Performance). The main teaching and coursework is done in the first two terms and the third is reserved for completion of assessed work.
Core seminars
In the Michaelmas term there are typically six topics:
- historical musicology
- current trends in music theory
- aesthetics
- the social and cultural study of music
- performance
- composition.
You may participate in as many of these seminars as you wish. Your first summative assessment will be a short lecture-recital presented at the start of Hilary Term.
Elective seminars
Each year a number of faculty members convene a series of ‘elective’ seminars based on their research interests, to help prepare you for your assessment essays. You are invited to attend as many of these seminars as you wish. Reading lists are sent out before the start of the courses and you are asked to prepare fully and contribute to the seminars. Most of the electives take place in Hilary term.
Recent seminar series included the following titles:
- Pitch, Amplitude, Timbre
- Brazilian Music
- Distributed Creativity in Composition and Performance
- Thirteenth-Century Motets
- Music and (Non) Religion
- Music and Race
- Gender and Sexuality in Popular Music Studies
- Music and Islamic Culture
- Beethoven between History and Myth.
Presentation seminars
Presentation seminars are held in Trinity term. Musicologists, performers and composers each prepare a presentation on their own research and are asked to respond to another student’s presentation in another; further feedback on presentation skills is received from the seminar convenor.
Year two
The second year is spent producing coursework (see the Assessment section below for further details).
Attendance
The course is full-time and requires attendance in Oxford. Full-time students are subject to the University's Residence requirements.
Resources to support your study
As a graduate student, you will have access to the University's wide range of world-class resources including libraries, museums, galleries, digital resources and IT services.
The Bodleian Libraries is the largest library system in the UK. It includes the main Bodleian Library and libraries across Oxford, including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, provide access to e-journals, and contain outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.
The University's IT Services is available to all students to support with core university IT systems and tools, as well as many other services and facilities. IT Services also offers a range of IT learning courses for students, to support with learning and research.
The Faculty of Music building includes teaching and lecture rooms, offices, the faculty's library with listening, audio-visual and microfilm rooms, a dedicated Graduate Centre, a common room, the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, the multimedia resource centre (MRC), an electronic recording studio, computing facilities, an ensemble room, a rehearsal/lecture hall and a suite of practice rooms.
The Faculty of Music is planning to move to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Autumn 2025. New facilities will include:
- practice rooms, and a larger ensemble room
- three music studios
- access to the Recital Hall
- The Black Box, a technology-enabled space to use for experimental electronic music compositions, multimedia works, experimental performances, and practice-based research. The space will be riggable in various ways, including with a 56-speaker array to create an immersive sound experience.
Libraries
The University’s Bodleian Library, receives every important British musicological study, in addition to acquiring most major books and editions published elsewhere; it has particularly important collections of printed sources for early music theory and nineteenth-century sheet music. Its manuscript collection contains many important sources for early English and European music, as do several college libraries.
Other significant research collections are held at the Taylorian Library (modern languages), the Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library and the Maison Française.
Oxford’s three important collections of musical instruments are the faculty’s Bate Collection, the Ashmolean Museum’s Hill Collection of old stringed and keyboard instruments, and the Pitt Rivers Museum’s extensive collection of ethnographic materials.
The Music Faculty Library is the University’s main repository for sound recordings and holds DVD recordings of opera, film and classical music. The library’s multimedia resource centre has 11 stand-alone Mac-based composition and research workstations with Sibelius 7 notation software, Pro Tools 10 audio production platform and Max/MSP audio and video modular programming language installed as standard, as well as specialist software for video editing, noise-removal, sound design, graphics editing, audio digitisation and transcription.
Schwartzman Studio facilities
The new Schwartzman studios will be available to use by Music Faculty students for their portfolio work.
Music Studio 1
Will be a professional acoustically designed music composition, production and mixing room, able to accommodate both stereo and the immersive broadcast and recording standard - Dolby Atmos 9.1.4. It will digitally connect to almost all the performance spaces in the Schwartzman building and will be able to simultaneously record up sixty musicians directly in the new Concert Hall.
Music Studio 2
Will be a professionally designed experimental music and acoustics research space, able to accommodate many different listening formats, from stereo to Ambisonics, Dolby Atmos, D&B Soundscape and others. It will have a permanent but adjustable ‘3D’ 22.2 loudspeaker array. The studio will contain a range of experimental electronic music instruments and will be inherently flexible by design, with connections to all performance spaces, but a design bias to working symbiotically with the Black Box.
Music Studio 3
Will be a ‘trad’ recording studio directly connected and adjacent to the ‘Ensemble Room’ and practice rooms on the ground floor. It will house a 32 channel all analogue vintage aesthetic Harrison recording console, with an array of choice microphones for recording small to medium sized ensemble performance: from soloist to quartet, Jazz, Rock and Pop.
Supervision
The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Faculty of Music and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Faculty of Music.
All students receive supervision from an appropriate specialist on their chosen topic. Students can usually expect to meet with their supervisor between two and three times a term, depending on the needs of the student and at the discretion of the supervisor.
Assessment
As the first year of this course is identical to the MSt in Music (Performance), assessment will be through an examined lecture-recital at the beginning of Hilary term, an essay in musicology at the end of Hilary term and a second essay in musicology and a longer recital at the end of Trinity term.
In order to proceed to the second year of the MPhil, you will normally need to obtain an average of 65% for your first year work overall, and a mark of over 70 in your final recital.
The second year is then spent producing coursework, comprising both a recital of at least two contrasted pieces, and a dissertation in musicology or ethnomusicology or a substantial edition with prefatory matter of comparable length.
Graduate destinations
Typical graduate destinations include doctoral research in music, teaching, arts management, performance, and other music-related or broadly cultural professions.
Changes to this course and your supervision
The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made if a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency occurs. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.
Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.
For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.
Entry requirements for entry in 2025-26
Proven and potential academic excellence
The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive.
Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying.
Degree-level qualifications
As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:
- an average mark of 67% or higher in an undergraduate degree with honours in music or related fields.
However, entrance is very competitive and most successful applicants have a first-class degree or the equivalent.
For applicants with a bachelor's degree from the USA, the minimum overall GPA that is normally required to meet the undergraduate-level requirement is 3.6 out of 4.0. However, most successful applicants have a GPA of 3.7.
If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.
GRE General Test scores
No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.
Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience
- Relevant professional experience may be considered as a substitute for academic attainment.
- Publications are not expected.
English language proficiency
This course requires proficiency in English at the University's higher level. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.
| Test | Minimum overall score | Minimum score per component |
|---|---|---|
| IELTS Academic (Institution code: 0713) | 7.5 | 7.0 |
TOEFL iBT, including the 'Home Edition' (Institution code: 0490) | 110 | Listening: 22 Reading: 24 Speaking: 25 Writing: 24 |
| C1 Advanced* | 191 | 185 |
| C2 Proficiency† | 191 | 185 |
*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
†Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)
Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides further information about the English language test requirement.
Declaring extenuating circumstances
If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.
References
You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The How to apply section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.
Supporting documents
You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The How to apply section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.
Performance at interview
Interviews are not normally held as part of the admissions process.
Offer conditions for successful applications
If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our 'After you apply' pages provide more information about offers and conditions.
In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:
Financial Declaration
If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a Financial Declaration in order to meet your financial condition of admission.
Disclosure of criminal convictions
In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any relevant, unspent criminal convictions before you can take up a place at Oxford.
Other factors governing whether places can be offered
The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:
- the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the About section of this page;
- the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
- minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.
Music
The University of Oxford Music Faculty is one of the largest and perhaps liveliest music departments in the UK.
As a globally renowned centre of teaching and research in all aspects of music, it is an exciting and stimulating environment for work and study.
The Faculty of Music is situated in specially adapted premises in St Aldates, Oxford, which include:
- teaching and lecture rooms,
- offices,
- the faculty's library with listening, audio-visual and microfilm rooms,
- a dedicated Graduate Centre,
- a common room,
- the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments,
- the multimedia resource centre (MRC),
- an electronic recording studio,
- computing facilities,
- an ensemble room,
- a rehearsal/lecture hall,
- a suite of practice rooms.
In Autumn 2025 it is expected that the faculty will move to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities. The new facilities will include:
- practice rooms, and a larger ensemble room
- three music studios
- access to the Recital Hall
- The Black Box, a technology-enabled space to use for experimental electronic music compositions, multimedia works, experimental performances, and practice-based research. The space will be riggable in various ways, including with a 56-speaker array to create an immersive sound experience.
Students have the benefit of international experts to supervise research, access to outstanding libraries, and the stimulus of a committed group of like-minded students and scholars in a range of subjects.
Subject areas, approaches, and modes of study are very varied. Students may concentrate on, for example:
- Western music history (from chant to the present day)
- popular music studies
- ethnomusicology
- music psychology
- music education
- sound studies
- source studies
- music theory
- aesthetics and criticism
- composition and analysis
- musical instruments
- musical performance and interpretation.
Many individual research projects are unique in their blend of approaches. Frequently, these extend into other academic disciplines such as literature, art history, psychology, philosophy, anthropology or general history.
Funding
For entry in the 2025-26 academic year, the collegiate University expects to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across a wide range of graduate courses.
If you apply by the January deadline shown on this page and receive a course offer, your application will then be considered for Oxford scholarships. For the majority of Oxford scholarships, your application will automatically be assessed against the eligibility criteria, without needing to make a separate application. There are further Oxford scholarships available which have additional eligibility criteria and where you are required to submit a separate application. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential.
To ensure that you are considered for Oxford scholarships that require a separate application, for which you may be eligible, use our fees, funding and scholarship search tool to identify these opportunities and find out how to apply. Alongside Oxford scholarships, you should also consider other opportunities for which you may be eligible including a range of external funding, loan schemes for postgraduate study and any other scholarships which may also still be available after the January deadline as listed on our fees, funding and scholarship search tool.
Details of college-specific funding opportunities can also be found on individual college websites:
Please refer to the College preference section of this page to identify which of the colleges listed above accept students for this course.
For the majority of college scholarships, it doesn’t matter which college, if any, you state a preference for in your application. If another college is able to offer you a scholarship, your application can be moved to that college if you accept the scholarship. Some college scholarships may require you to state a preference for that college when you apply, so check the eligibility requirements carefully.
Costs
Annual fees for entry in 2025-26
Fee status | Annual Course fees |
| Home | £16,900 |
| Overseas | £41,250 |
Information about course fees
Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges.
Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.
Where can I find further information about fees?
The Fees and Funding section of this website provides further information about course fees, including information about fee status and eligibility and your length of fee liability.
Additional information
There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees and living costs. However, as part of your course requirements, you may need to choose a dissertation, a project or a thesis topic. Please note that, depending on your choice of topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses. For Music (Performance), the faculty provides funding to support performance tuition which is normally sufficient to meet costs in this area.
Living costs
In addition to your course fees and any additional course-specific costs, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.
Living costs for full-time study
For the 2025-26 academic year, the range of likely living costs for a single, full-time student is between £1,425 and £2,035 for each month spent in Oxford. We provide the cost per month so you can multiply up by the number of months you expect to live in Oxford. Depending on your circumstances, you may also need to budget for the costs of a student visa and immigration health surcharge and/or living costs for family members or other dependants that you plan to bring with you to Oxford (assuming that dependant visa eligibility criteria are met).
Further information about living costs
The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. For study in Oxford beyond the 2025-26 academic year, it is suggested that you budget for potential increases in living expenses of around 4% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. For further information, please consult our more detailed information about living costs, which includes a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs.
College preference
Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs).
If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief introduction to the college system at Oxford and our advice about expressing a college preference.
If you are a current Oxford student and you would like to remain at your current Oxford college, you should check whether it is listed below. If it is, you should indicate this preference when you apply. If not, you should contact your college office to ask whether they would be willing to make an exception. Further information about staying at your current college can be found in our Application Guide.
The following colleges accept students on the MPhil in Music (Performance):
Before you apply
Our guide to getting started provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. You can use our interactive tool to help you evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive.
If it is important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under the January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance. Check the deadlines on this page and the information about deadlines and when to apply in our Application Guide.
Application fee waivers
An application fee of £75 is payable for each application to this course. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:
- applicants from low-income countries;
- refugees and displaced persons;
- UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and
- applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.
You are encouraged to check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver before you apply.
Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?
You do not need to make contact with the department before you apply but you are encouraged to visit the relevant departmental webpages to read any further information about your chosen course.
Completing your application
You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents.
For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application.
If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.
Referees
Three overall, academic preferred
Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.
References should generally be academic, though you may use one professional reference.
Your references will support performance ability, academic achievement, motivation, and research promise.
Official transcript(s)
Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.
More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.
Statement of purpose:
A maximum of 1,000 words
Your statement should be written in English and explain your motivation for applying for the course at Oxford, your relevant experience and education, and the specific areas that interest you and/or you intend to specialise in.
If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.
This will be assessed for the evidence it supplies of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study; the ability to present a reasoned case in English; feasibility and coherence of proposed performance project to be pursued during the course.
Written work:
Two essays of a maximum of 5,000 words in total
Academic essays or other writing samples from your most recent qualification, written in English, are required. Extracts of the requisite length from longer work are also permissible.
The topic of your work should be relevant to the subject area you are applying to. The word count does not need to include any bibliography or brief footnotes.
If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.
Writing samples will be assessed for understanding of the subject area; ability to construct and defend an argument; powers of analysis; powers of expression.
Portfolio:
Recording of up to 15 minutes
You should submit a recorded recital showing contrasting styles of performance.
You can submit mp3/mp4 recordings to Graduate Admissions via the document upload portal (it is not possible to send these file types via the application form). If the file exceeds the file-size limit of our document upload portal or you encounter an error uploading it, it should instead be hosted on a website or service that is publicly accessible via the internet, eg via Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr or your own website. You will need to embed the URL (and password, if necessary) for the recording in a PDF file and upload this using the document upload portal.
Performances will be assessed for their interpretative maturity, persuasive powers of communication and technical proficiency.
Start or continue your application
You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please refer to the requirements above and consult our Application Guide for advice.
After you've submitted your application
Your application (including the supporting documents outlined above) will be assessed against the entry requirements detailed on this course page. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed. You can find out more about our shortlisting and selection process in our detailed guide to what happens next.
Find out how to manage your application after submission, using our Applicant Self-Service tool.