A Guide to Junior Guildhall Admissions
Inchwise Research · Conservatoire Admissions Unit
Data current to 28 September 2026. Applies to entry in September 2027.
In brief
Junior Guildhall is the Saturday school of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, at Silk Street in the Barbican. The Music Course takes 8 to 18 year olds and has around 290 students. The day runs 8am to 6pm, the longest of any UK junior department.
The application deadline is 11.59pm on 1 March each year. The other six junior departments have not published a 2027 date.
The published entry standard is about Grade 5 distinction at the age of 10 and Grade 8 distinction by the age of 16.
The Music Course fee for 2026/27 is £4,359 a year. First study piano applications are reviewed on paper before an audition is offered. Treble voices are not offered. Withdrawal during the year does not reduce the fee.
01 What Junior Guildhall Is
A specialist Saturday school, part of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, teaching at Silk Street, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DT. Across all its courses it takes ages 4 to 18.
The Music Course — the main auditioned programme — runs from 8am to 6pm on Saturdays and has around 290 students.
The school's wording on absence: students should not arrange other activities on a term-time Saturday or concert day until permission for absence has been granted.
Junior Guildhall sits inside Guildhall Young Artists, the School's network of centres. The Centre for Young Musicians is also in that network, teaches at Morley College near Waterloo, does not audition, and publishes fees per term. Guildhall appears twice on the government's list of music Centres for Advanced Training.
The standalone guildhallyoungartists.co.uk address no longer resolves; everything now sits on gsmd.ac.uk.
02 The Courses and Their Ages
Music Course: 8 to 18. The main auditioned programme.
Jazz Programme: 14 and over. Saturdays, with some individual lessons delivered on weekdays from 5pm.
Electronic and Produced Music: 16 to 18, described in the 2026 prospectus as Years 11, 12 and 13.
Drama Course: 13 to 18.
Brass, String and Wind Training Programmes: Years 2 to 6. The feeder tier below the Music Course.
Kindergarten: Reception and Year 1. The only course entered without an audition.
03 Standard of Entry
The published guide, in the school's own words: candidates will normally have attained a standard of about Grade 5 distinction at the age of 10 and Grade 8 distinction by the age of 16.
Grades do not have to have been taken.
For comparison: the Royal College of Music gives a floor at 11 and a description at sixth form; the Royal Academy of Music gives one figure; Junior Trinity and Junior RNCM give a single grade; Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland publish none.
04 First Study Piano
First study piano places are limited, and applications are screened before the audition.
Applications for first study piano are reviewed initially by the panel, and successful candidates are then invited to audition.
The application fee is refunded where a piano candidate cannot be offered an audition on this basis. It is the only circumstance in which the school publishes a refund.
05 What the Music Course Includes
A 40-minute first study lesson, a Musical Awareness class, and ensembles.
Additional musical workshop activities are included at no extra cost, subject to availability.
Extensions and extra studies are charged at £1,080 a year per 20 minutes.
The Jazz Programme fee covers a 40-minute jazz first study lesson and a 30-minute classical extra study lesson on the same instrument, plus all classes and ensembles. That is two individual lessons a week within one fee.
The String Training Programme gives a 20-minute first study lesson in Year 2 and 30 minutes in Years 3 to 6, plus Kodály, Dalcroze Eurhythmics and ensemble classes.
06 Instruments Offered
Strings: violin, viola, cello, double bass, harp, guitar. Woodwind: flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon. Brass: horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, euphonium. Percussion. Voice. Composition.
Treble voices are not offered. Singing starts from the mid-teens.
Organ is not published as a first study. The Royal College of Music Junior Department, Junior RNCM and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire list it.
Jazz is offered as a first-study programme. At the Royal College of Music it is offered only as jazz piano and jazz saxophone.
07 Fees, 2026/27
Music Course: £4,359 a year.
Jazz Programme: £4,875. Electronic and Produced Music: £4,875.
Brass, String and Wind Training Programmes: £2,565. Kindergarten: £945.
Drama: Advanced £1,986, Double £1,440, Single £1,020.
Extensions and extra studies, per 20 minutes: £1,080.
Invoiced annually. Payable in one payment in the first term, or three equal termly instalments. No per-term figure is published, and the first instalment must be paid before tuition begins.
The school states that the full annual fee will vary according to any timetable requests made.
If a student is withdrawn at any time during the year, the full annual fee remains payable unless dispensation is granted by the Head of Junior Guildhall.
Pre-Audition Advice Sessions are charged at £80 an hour, on Saturdays, in person or online, subject to availability. No academic year is attached to that figure. No other junior department publishes a paid pre-audition consultation.
2027/28 fees are not published. The School's 2027/28 fee schedule covers undergraduate and postgraduate study only.
08 Applying
Applications open in January and close at 11.59pm on 1 March, for entry the following September. The apply page states Applications to join Junior Guildhall in September 2027 will open in January and Apply by Monday 1 March 2027.
The main audition period is March to April. Applications for entry at other times of the year are considered if spaces are available.
Applications go through the school's own portal.
No video or pre-screening round is published for the Music Course. Apart from the paper screening for first study piano, the audition is in person.
The audition: two contrasting pieces on the first study — singers should offer songs in two languages; one piece on an optional second study; scales and arpeggios appropriate to the standard, normally five or six asked; sight reading; and a short interview with the panel.
Accompanists are provided by Junior Guildhall unless the candidate prefers to bring their own.
The jazz audition consists of: a jazz standard of the candidate's choice with improvisation; a transcribed jazz solo excerpt of at least 32 bars; scales and modes, or rudiments for drummers; sight reading with improvisation over a twelve-bar blues; and general questions.
Entry is by competitive audition for every course except Kindergarten.
09 Term Dates
2026/27, confirmed: Autumn 12 September to 5 December 2026; Spring 9 January to 20 March 2027; Summer 17 April to 10 July 2027.
2027/28, published but marked Proposed: Autumn 18 September to 11 December 2027; Spring 8 January to 1 April 2028; Summer 22 April to 1 July 2028.
The other six junior departments have not published 2027/28 term dates.
10 Money
Bursaries are means-tested. Applications should be received by 1 May for students entering the following September, which falls after the audition. Funding comes through charitable trusts including the Leverhulme Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and the Ruth David & John Beckett Bursary. No maximum or typical award is published.
National Grants are the school's name for Music and Dance Scheme money, funded through the Department for Education and open to Music Course and Jazz Programme students. The school describes them as intended for young musicians with exceptional potential and dedication who do not have the financial means to access the best available training.
Junior Guildhall states these grants are intended for young musicians aged 8 to 16. gov.uk gives the eligible range for music Centres for Advanced Training as 8 to 19.
Scholarships of £250 to £1,000 are awarded to outstanding musicians through the entrance audition or internal assessment. No application is required.
City of London Awards enable pupils from City of London Schools and Academies to attend.
Where Music and Dance Scheme money is in play, the scheme's own residence condition applies: three years' ordinary residence in the British Islands immediately before the grant is taken up. That is a funding condition, and Junior Guildhall publishes no residence requirement for admission.
11 What the School Does Not Say
An application fee exists. Its amount is not published, and it is referred to only in the sentence about refunding it to piano candidates.
Nothing about residence, travelling distance, applicants outside the UK, or visas.
Nothing about progression to the senior School. The only wording is that students often go on to study their chosen discipline full-time at undergraduate level.
No audition fee, registration fee or deposit is published — which is an absence of a statement, not a statement that none is charged.
12 Points to Confirm Before Applying
The application fee amount.
The 2027/28 course fee, and whether the three-instalment option still stands.
What timetable choices change the annual fee, given that the school states it varies.
Whether National Grants at Junior Guildhall apply to 16 or to 19.
For first study piano, what the panel assesses at the paper stage.
Whether the 2027/28 term dates have been confirmed or are still proposed.
Sources
Junior Guildhall: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/junior-guildhall
Junior Guildhall · Music Course: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/study-with-guildhall/children-and-young-people/guildhall-young-artists/junior-guildhall/courses-and-programmes/music-course
Junior Guildhall · Jazz Programme: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/study-with-guildhall/children-and-young-people/guildhall-young-artists/junior-guildhall/courses-and-programmes/jazz-programme
Junior Guildhall · Fees, bursaries and national grants: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/junior-guildhall-fees
Junior Guildhall · Term dates: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/study-with-guildhall/children-and-young-people/guildhall-young-artists/junior-guildhall/get-involved/term-dates
Junior Guildhall · How to apply: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/youth_adult_learning/junior_guildhall/how_to_apply/
Guildhall Young Artists: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/study-with-guildhall/children-and-young-people/guildhall-young-artists
Guildhall Young Artists · Centre for Young Musicians: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/study-with-guildhall/children-and-young-people/guildhall-young-artists/centre-for-young-musicians
GOV.UK · Music and Dance Scheme (last updated 24 September 2026): https://www.gov.uk/music-dance-scheme
Inchwise · A Guide to UK Conservatoire Junior Departments: https://inchwise.co.uk/guides/a-guide-to-uk-conservatoire-junior-departments
Cover photograph: Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Barbican, by Paul the Archivist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guildhall_School_of_Music_and_Drama,_Barbican_Estate,_London.jpg The cover is a derivative of that photograph and is released under the same licence.
