The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with drama and production arts.[4] The school has students from over seventy countries.[5] It was ranked first in both the Guardian’s 2022 League Table for Music[6] and the Complete University Guide's 2023 Arts, Drama and Music league table.[7] It is also ranked the fifth university in the world for performing arts in the 2024 QS World University Rankings.[8]
The Guildhall School of Music first opened its doors on 27 September 1880, housed in a disused warehouse in the City of London. With 64 part-time students, it was the first municipal music college in Great Britain. The school quickly outgrew its first home, however, and in 1887 it moved to new premises in John Carpenter Street in a complex of educational buildings built by the Corporation of London to house it and the city's two state schools.
The new building was completed by 9 December 1886 and the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Reginald Hanson, attended the opening ceremony. Teaching continued under the first principal of the school, Thomas Henry Weist Hill, who eventually had some ninety teaching staff.
Guildhall's Silk Street building from inside the Barbican Estate
The new site, designed by the architect Sir Horace Jones, comprised a common room for professors and 45 studios, each surrounded by a one-foot thick layer of concrete to "deaden the sound". Each room contained both a grand piano and an upright piano. Additionally, there was an organ room and a "practice" room, in reality a small concert hall which was used for orchestral and choir rehearsals. The practice room was also the venue for the fortnightly school concerts
Initially, all tuition was on a part-time basis, but full-time courses were introduced to meet demand in 1920. Departments of speech, voice, and acting were added, and by 1935 the school had added "and Drama" to its title.
1977–2005
The school moved to its present premises in the heart of the City of London's Barbican Centre in 1977 and continues to be owned, funded and administered by the City of London.
In 1993, the Corporation of London leased a nearby courtyard of buildings that in the 18th century had been the centre of Samuel Whitbread's first brewery, and renovated and converted this to provide the school with its hall of residence, Sundial Court.[9] About three minutes' walk from the school, Sundial Court offers self-catering single-room accommodation for 178 students.
In 2001, the Secretary of State, Baroness Blackstone, announced that the Barbican Centre, including the Guildhall School, was to be Grade II listed.
2005–present
Guildhall's Milton Court building from outside
In 2005, the school was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for its development and outreach programme, Guildhall Connect,[10] and, in 2007, it won a further Queen's Anniversary Prize in recognition of the work of the opera programme over the last two decades. The school was rated No. 1 specialist institution in the UK in the Guardian University Guide 2013 and 2014.[11]
The most significant investment in the Guildhall School's future came to fruition via the £90 million redevelopment of the neighbouring Milton Court site.[12] The new building, which opened in 2013, houses three new performance spaces: a concert hall (608 seats), a theatre (223 seats) and a studio theatre (up to 128 seats) in addition to drama teaching and administration spaces.[13]
The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs[14] as well as the Junior Guildhall, a Saturday school serving students from 4 to 18 years of age.[15]
The school was awarded a further Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2007 in recognition of the achievements and work of the Opera Programme.[16]
In August 2014, the Guildhall had a logo change to a more minimalist modern style. It was changed due to the school thinking that it needed to reflect its types of teachings.
The Guildhall offers a four-year undergraduate program for musicians along with the Guildhall Artist Masters in performance or composition and the highly advanced Artist Diploma programme. Students can specialise in classical or jazz performance (either as an instrumentalist or vocalist), composition, historical performance and electronic music. At master's level, vocal students are able to specialise in Opera Studies. In addition to this, the school offers postgraduate degrees in opera writing (in association with The Royal Opera) and in music therapy.[17]
Drama
The Guildhall School offers a three-year BA Honours in Acting and the MA in Acting preparing students for the world of professional theatre. The School also delivers the BA Honours in Acting Studies in partnership with the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. A full time, four-year programme with two years of training at each institution, the BA Honours in Acting Studies takes in a cohort of students every other year, exploring cross-cultural approaches to acting.[18]
Production Arts
The School also offers a three-year vocational degree in production arts where students can specialise in either Stage Management, Costume, Theatre Technology or Design Realisation.[19] The school is one of a handful to offer specialist training in stage automation,[20] with computer controlled flying installations in three of the venues provided by TAIT, based upon their eChameleon platform.[21]
Youth Learning
Guildhall School offers a Saturday school for advanced young musicians under the age of 18. In addition to this, the school the UK's largest provider of music education to under 18s by incorporating the Centre for Young Musicians (CYM) and creating new music "hubs" in Norfolk and Somerset; the school achieved recognition for Guildhall's music outreach and opera programmes through two Queen's Anniversary Prizes (2005 and 2007).
Admission
Admission to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama is by a highly competitive audition. The School holds auditions for their music programmes in London, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo and from 2021 drama auditions will be held in cities across the UK (including London, Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Nottingham) along with international auditions in New York.[22]
For the Production Arts course, admission is through interview at the school's Milton Court building in London, or at the United States Institute of Theatre Technology conference held each year, where prospective students meet and take part in various activities which simulate the teaching offered on the course.[23]
In the year 2018/19, the Acting course had 2,610 applications and awarded offers to only 1% of the applicants,[24] giving it one of the lowest acceptance rates for any U.K. higher education institution. Unlike other UK conservatoires, Guildhall operates a separate applications procedure and applications are made directly to the school, as opposed to through UCAS Conservatoires.
Facilities
Inside Milton Court Concert Hall
The Milton Court Concert Hall is a 608-seat professional concert venue, with the largest audience capacity of any of the London conservatoires.[25] The school works in association with the Barbican Centre to stage public performances from world-renowned ensembles, such as the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia within Milton Court. In addition to Guildhall's flagship concert hall, the Milton Court building also contains a 223-seat proscenium arch theatre, a flexible 128-seat studio theatre and several rehearsal rooms. The school's Grade II listed Silk Street building houses a 308-seat drama and opera theatre, along with a second smaller concert hall, a recital room, theatrical workshops and labs, electronic music studios, recording and sound studios, and over 40 teaching and practice rooms. The school also owns the John Hosier Annexe, a nearby building with a further 44 teaching and practice rooms. The Guildhall School library (located within the Silk Street building) houses one of the most extensive specialised collections of music and drama print in Europe.[26] The Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform regularly in the neighbouring 1,943-seat Barbican Hall, whilst chamber musicians give recitals there as part of the acclaimed LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists series.
