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
- City Lit gift vouchers - the perfect gift
Looking for that perfect present? Treat someone to the gift of learning with a course at City Lit. Available from £10, our gift vouchers can be used to book a place on any of our courses, from London walks and food tasting to museum visits, poetry and much more. Simply purchase your voucher and the recipient can choose from thousands of courses, at a time which suits them.Full fee £10.00 - Radio and podcast presenting: advanced (intensive)Course start date: Sat 22 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: David SpencerThis is a new opportunity to take your love of radio presenting to the next level. The course supports you with a tutor-editor to craft a pre-recorded radio programme or extended feature on a subject of your choice, mixing interview clips, music and sound effects into your own production. This weekend workshop will be delivered in the media studio.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £104.00 - Screen acting: beginners (intensive)Course start date: Sat 29 Mar 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Gary GrantThis is a practical and intensive weekend course. Working in a friendly and supportive atmosphere, you'll explore and develop the key skills required for working on camera.Full fee £199.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £139.00 - 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 - Improvisation traditions in musicCourse start date: Thu 3 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Neil LuckThis course offers an overview of ways that improvisation has been used, or is central to different musical traditions (Western and Non-western), from the 17th century to the present day. The course touches on Baroque and Classical music, Indian Classical Music, Jazz, the avant-garde tradition, and Pop and Rock.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £62.00 - Great composers: Puccini Course start date: Thu 3 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneEveryone knows at least one Puccini tune, even if they’ve never seen a Puccini opera. Football fans, for example, can sing ‘Nessun dorma’, and there are plenty more where we know the tune even if we can’t sing all the words or know which opera it comes from. What is it about this composer that made him so famous in his own time and in ours? In this centenary year of his death we look at his operas, his bohemian lifestyle, and his reputation. Is he a ‘great’ composer? How can we decide?Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £49.00 Concession £49.00 - Great works: Allegri's MiserereCourse start date: Thu 3 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward BreenExplore the history of this most famous choral work and trace the story of the famous high C from the castrati of the 18th century to today’s professional early music vocal ensembles.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00 - Acting: plays to change the worldCourse start date: Fri 4 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laura BaggaleyThis one-day acting workshop will introduce you to scenes from dynamic modern plays that explore the challenges of our changing world. Discover how contemporary playwrights are tackling the most important themes of our time, including climate change, political turmoil and environmental crises.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £63.00 Concession £55.00 - Character voices (intensive)Course start date: Sat 5 Apr 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: David ThorpeCharacter voices aren’t just for cartoons. Learn the tools and techniques you need to create new and unique character voices or to accurately imitate a historical or contemporary voice for animation, stage and screen. This course will be delivered in the media studio.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £104.00 - Viola workshopCourse start date: Sun 6 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Robert PuzeyFocus on technique and musicianship especially for viola: on playing on the C string, reading alto clef fluently, left-hand work and more. For viola players, and violin players who wish to add an extra string to their bow!Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00 - Great composers: Palestrina Course start date: Mon 7 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward BreenKnown as one of the three towering composers of the renaissance (alongside Lassus & Byrd), explore the life and works of this most famous polyphonist. *Tutors: Patrick Allies & Edward Breen.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £79.00 - Orchestra workshop Course start date: Tue 8 Apr 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Robert PuzeyA fun, intensive workshop for players of orchestral instruments of Grade 6 level upwards, with good music reading skills. Please click the 'Start interview' button, follow the login instructions, and the Music Department will contact you. Paul Sarcich will be your conductor for this workshop.
Repertoire
Bizet- Symphony No.1
Holst- Two songs Opus. 22
Mozart- Overture Clemenza Di Tito k.621.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £103.00 Concession £90.00 - 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 - Great works: Bizet's Carmen Course start date: Thu 10 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Pauline GreeneBizet’s Carmen is one of the most performed operas world-wide. We know it as a thrilling drama involving love, betrayal and death, focused on a charismatic character who brings about her own destruction at the hands of the man who loves her. Bizet never saw the popular version of his opera and died thinking it was a flop. We explore the story behind its composition and how it became a super-hit.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £49.00 Concession £49.00 - String Easter School Course start date: Fri 11 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Robert PuzeyLearn technique, repertoire and ensemble skills for all orchestral strings. Develop your confidence and make new string friends. For players at grade 3 or above.
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