Showstoppers from Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Six and West Side Story are amongst a century of stage and screen hits to feature on ABRSM’s landmark Singing for Musical Theatre syllabuses.

With the launch of Grades 6, 7 and 8 today, these new grades mean ABRSM students can now take the full suite of eight Singing for Musical Theatre practical Grades and choose the route – ‘Digital’ Performance Grades or ‘Live’ Practical examinations – which best suits their musical goals and learning styles.

ABRSM Academic Director, Philippa Bunting said: “We’re incredibly excited about the new grades and the fact that Singing for Musical Theatre learners can now choose to follow a full route through both Practical and Performance Grades right through from Grade 1 to Grade 8.

“We’ve worked hard to find engaging new material from different eras and styles and cover a wider-than-ever range of both composer backgrounds and on-stage personae.

“We’ve also worked hard to create supporting tests for the new practical grades to encourage the real-life musical skills that are needed to enhance rehearsals and performances alike. The overall aim is to really help learners blossom into all-round performers and prepare them for careers in musical theatre if they want to go further.”

Repertoire for the new grades is designed to appeal to diverse tastes and covers everything from ‘Burn’, ‘That Would be Enough’ and ‘You’ll Be Back’(Hamilton) to ‘Heart of Stone’ (Six The Musical) and ‘Dancing Through Life’ (Wicked) and classics like ‘Tonight’ and ‘Maria’ from West Side Story and ‘Who Am I’ from Les Miserables.

The new grades also feature songs from Tim Minchin’s Matilda The Musical, Frozen 2 and dozens of other hit shows from stage and screen.

ABRSM has meanwhile also refreshed song lists across Practical and Performance Grades syllabuses, with more songs from brand new musicals, along with timeless classics and has today published Singing for Musical Theatre aural and sight-singing tests to accompany the new grades (aural tests for the higher Singing for Musical Theatre Grades differ from tests for other ABRSM examination subjects).

It has been developing other new resources for musical theatre singers and is preparing to unveil a free new Singing for Musical Theatre Practice Partner digital app. The app will allow learners to sing songs in their chosen key, at their chosen speed and choose from 60 piano accompaniments from the ABRSM Singing for Musical Theatre Songbook series at Grades 1 to 5.

The new Practical and Performance Grades syllabuses are valid from today, 20 January 2022 until further notice. There will be no overlap period. Details of the new syllabus are at www.abrsm.org/sfmt.