Performing Arts Courses & Classes in London and Online
City Lit offers performing arts courses in the heart of Covent Garden in Central London during the evening, daytime and at weekends. Explore our range of subjects including acting, (including accredited acting courses), dance, radio and screen, and voice, speech and communication as well as a full range of music courses, such as piano, singing, strings and wind instruments to jazz and pop, music technology, music theory and history
Our courses are labelled clearly for beginners or those with previous experience and you can speak to a specialist advisor to help you choose the right level. If you would you like some help or advice:
For music courses email music@citylit.ac.uk. You can also view our music auditions and advice page.
For drama, dance and speech courses email drama@citylit.ac.uk
- Music analysis for listeners: Messiah Part I
Course start date: Wed 11 Dec 2024Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneHandel’s Messiah, composed in1741, is a stalwart work for concert programmers everywhere at Christmas and Easter. We look at Part I, from the beginning to the duet and chorus ‘His yoke is easy’, briefly putting the work in context and examining its forms and overall structure. We will then analyse a passage of recitative, an aria, and a chorus, in order to show how the composer created his effects and how effective this was for audiences then and now.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £49.00 Concession £49.00 - Great works: Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilègesCourse start date: Wed 2 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Trish ShawThe fantastical opera L'Enfant et les sortileges, by Maurice Ravel, was first performed in March 1925 at the Monte Carlo Opera. Come and explore this delightful work, with plot and libretto by the novelist Collete, and its magical characters and even more magical music.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £39.00 - Great works: Smetana's Ma Vlast Course start date: Wed 9 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Katy HamiltonAmong the numerous operas, piano pieces, choral and chamber works composed by Bedrich Smetana, surely the best known is his depiction of the river Vltava from his cycle of symphonic poems, Má Vlast. This session explores the origins of Smetana’s six-movement cycle composed across several years, the stories that he conjures in such vivid orchestral colours, and its meaning for Czech national identity in the later nineteenth century.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £39.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list