the programme

Artistic manager Master New Music Theatre: Micha Hamel

Auditions: May 1, 2012, and June 21, 2012.

The programme
The Master New Music Theatre is a profile within the Master of Music study programme. In this two-year fulltime study programme for makers and performers, interdisciplinary working and thinking are central. Music is emphatically the starting point of this programme. The speciality of the student can lie either on the creative side or on the performing side. In different projects and ways of working, the student brings his or her musical craft into living contact with forms of theatre, so that this combination leads to interdisciplinary performing arts with music as the foundation. Therefore a level of command of music is expected which is equal to that at the end of a bachelor’s study programme, or otherwise the student will have built up demonstrable experience with music on a professional level during study or work, as a result of which this level is verifiably present. In short, the Master New Music Theatre is a study programme for instrumentalists, vocalists and composers who are searching for theatricality in their work, and who have the ambition to develop into an independent artist in the working field of contemporary music theatre. Stage directors with a great affinity for music, with the above-mentioned demonstrable capacities in music and a great interest in music theatre, are invited to come and take an audition. The study programme is arranged in such a way that in addition to their study, the students can maintain a working practice in its initial stages.

Click here for the year schedule of the Master New Music Theatre.

Individual
The main subject of the New Music Theatre master’s study consists of a practical and a theoretical part. The practical part consists of creating two performances of one’s own, which have to be presented at the end of the first and second years respectively. Writing, composing (and/or choosing the lyrics and music to be played), directing and carrying out this performance is done by the student under their own steam, if so desired assisted by fellow-students. For the creation of this performance, the student chooses a personal mentor from the working field, with whom he sharpens his artistic choices through discussions. There is also dramaturgical support during the development of the idea, the form and the content of performances.
The theoretical part consists of carrying out artistic research in the area of the relationship between music and theatre. This research is for the benefit of the artistic development of the student. His/her research question then supports the creation process of the above-named performances in some way.
In addition each student has a personal packet of subjects which are intended for maintaining and deepening one’s own original craft. In concrete terms this means that the student in the study programme can continue to work on his strictly musical development. Supplementary to this are subjects which are designed to add to this craft, or broaden it in the direction of interdisciplinary artistry. This packet is composed in consultation with the artistic directorship, on the one hand based on the artistic research question of the student, and on the other hand based on the need for new skills to be developed in the student.

Collective
Two group projects put the meeting between the disciplines into practice.
At the beginning of the year, the group of Master’s students creates a presentation which centres on exploring the possibilities of the multidisciplinary-composed group of students. In addition there are four Theme Weeks in which component aspects of contemporary music theatre are scrutinized. At the end of the year, under the leadership of an experienced director, the group of Master’s students creates a full music theatre performance based on the artistic contribution of each student.

Theory
The students follow a packet of theoretical and appreciation courses together, such as methods and techniques of artistic research, new media, philosophy of art, repertoire history, cultural entrepreneurship, intervision, theoretical and practical dramaturgy.

Outflow profile
A graduating student in the Master New Music Theatre is an independently thinking and operating artist. He/she can think up a concept for a music theatre performance, develop and execute it. In the process of creation, he is distinguished by his virtuosity in the contact with other arts disciplines. He is flexible in the application of his original craft in an interdisciplinary working environment. His work is the result of the impact of music on theatre, but also of music theatre on, for example, science, technology or society. This work also attests to a highly imaginative vision on the phenomenon of music theatre, and its elaboration is of a completely individual nature. The artistic material from which the work is constructed is relevant against the background of the current working field, and shows a way of creating art from which the voice of the next generation reverberates.

Click here to go to the professorship New Music Theatre / Nieuw Muziektheater of Codarts.

To conclude

- After completion of the programme the student receives the title Master of Music (MMus)

- Click here for the Teaching and Examination Regulations 
- The language of instruction is Dutch, and English for foreign students
- Codarts maintains the international code of conduct with respect to higher education

- Students follow the programme Master of Music 44739

- The programme was accredited on 22-05-2007 (www.nvao.net)