Music exam to focus on performance

A new music qualification is aiming to build closer links between the study of music and the “art and craft of musical communication”.

The ARSM diploma has been launched as part of suite of higher level diplomas run by the ABRSM, the UK’s largest music education body, to enable learners to focus solely on practical performing skills. Penny Milsom, Executive Director of Products and Services at ABRSM, described it as providing “a meaningful goal to work towards” for musicians who have completed the Board’s Grade 8 exams. She said: “Feedback tells us that building a balanced programme, stamina and performance skills are what learners find most challenging beyond Grade 8.”

The qualification requires musicians to put together a 30-minute performance programme of music that falls within the Western Art Music tradition, chosen by them to reflect their own individual musical strengths and enthusiasms. It includes no written or spoken elements, and none of the sight reading, aural tests or scales required in most other qualifications. It will lead to the designation Associate of the Royal Schools of Music (ARSM). Assessment will begin at exam venues worldwide from January 2017.