Sonic Arts

Welcome to the website for  Music & Sonic Arts at Queen’s.

As you will see from the information contained within the site, we offer some of the most distinctive education programmes available in the UK and Ireland at undergraduate and postgraduate level.  Our research-led teaching activities range from ground-breaking music and engineering courses at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, through creative practice in composition and performance, to musicological research, source studies, and Irish traditional music research and performance.

We offer undergraduate programmes in Music (BMus) & Music Technology and Sonic Arts (BSc) as well as MA programmes in Music, Composition and Sonic Arts. The department also has a very large and vibrant community of over fifty postgraduates working on a range of creative, technical and musicological subjects across two sites of the School - the Music building and Sonic Arts Research Centre.

As a result of large-scale investment by the University, the performance programme at Queen's is now one of the most extensive in Ireland with tuition available to all students on the BMus, BSc and MA programmes. Additional practice rooms have been created for amplified performance activities and further practices rooms will be created in the next few years. 

There are also numerous performance ensembles in the School, including two orchestras, big band, improvisation and experimental ensemble, new music ensemble two choirs, brass band, and Irish traditional ensemble. Many of these groups are run by students in the School.  For further details, and information on the new developments in performance at Queen's, including the large ensembles, new appointments, the performance team, and scholarships, please click here: Performance @ Queen's.

Please browse our website and catch a glimpse of why Music at Queen's is so special!

Professor Michael Alcorn
Head of School