Music facilities
Studying music at Kingston University offers you wide-ranging training, well balanced between the practical and academic aspects of music. Whether you prefer pop, rock, the experimental, avant-garde or multimedia, we have the expertise and facilities to support your music-making, performing and producing.
Coombehurst House, Coombehurst Lodge and the Visconti Studio offer you a range of teaching and professional studio facilities and practice rooms including:
- five recording studios
- a computer suite with Mac workstations
- audio and video editing facilities
- band rehearsal rooms.
Our tape-based Visconti Studio, based around an extraordinary 300 square metre octagonal live room and stocked with vintage and rare recording equipment (Studer, Neve, Neumann, Universal Audio, Roland Space Echo), also features a unique collection of instruments including a Mellotron, a Hammond organ with Leslie cabinet, and a Steinway concert grand piano.
The Kingston Hill campus's proximity to London means that you benefit from easy access to the capital's excellent musical resources as well as Kingston's own facilities.
Instrument collection
In addition to a Mellotron, Hammond organ and Steinway grand piano, you'll have access to stage pianos, timpani drums, marimba, an orchestral bass drum and other classroom instruments. We are one of only a handful of UK universities to own a double-size Javanese gamelan and a set of djembe drums.
We also have a 36-channel in-line mixing desk, recording, monitoring and processing equipment and software, and extensive effect-generating kit.
Loans system
We operate a loans system that allows students to book out a wide range of recording and performing equipment and instruments online. Room bookings can also be made through the same system, and the studios can be used 24 hours a day.
Music in the library
The Nightingale Centre on the Kingston Hill campus is home to the music library, which holds an extensive collection of books, anthologies, scores, sheet music, periodicals, and audio and video recordings. The University also subscribes to an excellent range of e-resources for music, including Grove Music Online, RILM and the Naxos Online Recordings catalogue. These are all accessible from all University workstations.
Coombehurst House and Visconti Studio
