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Course

Course

With the Music Theatre master's course, you will get to know the professional field from the inside and develop your own signature as a music theatre maker. You will be preparing yourself for an innovative professional practice, and design your multidisciplinary professional practice based on music and theatre.

You will learn about theatre, music and the history of music theatre, and about the many applications of theatrical and musical principles. You get to know the professional field by conducting practical research at one of our partners, Orkest De Ereprijs, Theater Sonnevanck, De Nieuwe Oost, Via Berlin and in masterclasses delivered by professionals from practice. You study performing art and history and start applying it in your own professional field. You develop your awareness of space and time and discover how you can incorporate them as theatrical elements to make an impact.

In this master's course, you learn to shape your content with music and theatre so that you can tell the story that you want to communicate as a performer and maker."
CECILE BROMMER, mentor at the master's course Music Theatre

Curriculum

The Music Theatre master’s course is a tailor-made course made up of elements from different programmes: an individual elective programme, the Performance Lab (a course-specific programme) and Connecting the Dots (a joint programme with all the master's students in music).

  • For each academic year, in consultation with your mentor, you write a study plan describing your individual study programme for that year. In it, you specify which classes and subjects you will take at ArtEZ. You have a great deal of freedom in this: the only conditions are that you fulfil the required number of credits (ECTS) and that the artistic elements reflect your objective.

    You complete the first year with an end-of-year performance. At the end of the second year, you conclude the individual programme with a music theatre production for the public. In recent years, master's students have graduated with music theatre productions, theatrical podcasts and a combination of music and film.

  • The Performance Lab is a collective study programme that consists of masterclasses and festival visits (Cement, Festival O., Opera Forward). In both the first and the second years of the course, you can sign up to study an artistic issue, conduct laboratory research or take part in a music theatre project at one of the three institutions. Under the care of the partners and with supervision from the course, you immerse yourself in music theatre research, a role as a director's assistant or your own project in line with the artistic signature of the host company.

    The following professionals have previously given masterclasses

    • Arlon Luijten: director, game designer and member of the European Cultural Parliament (Operadagen, GAMPSISS, Codarts, Erasmus University)
    • Micha Hamel: composer, director, member of the Dutch Society of Arts
    • Laura van Grinsven: art historian and performance specialist, ArtEZ staff member
    • Jan Pieter Koch: composer and musical dramatist (Orkater, Het Balletorkest, Nederlands Danstheater)
    • Dagmar Slagmolen: artistic director of Via Berlin, director and actress
    • Renee Trijselaar: consultant in the cultural sector, founder of De Verdienmodellen
    • Florian Hellwig: music theatre dramaturge
    • Maite van der Marel: artistic director and trainer for Sounds of Change

  • In Connecting the Dots you will meet – and work with – other music master's students at ArtEZ. Connecting the Dots consists of a project week, various workshops and the Meet the Master programme. Connecting the Dots is about exchange, cooperation and connection: you will get a taste of other music disciplines besides your own and benefit from working with makers who, like you, are developing their own practices.

    Examples from previous years of Connecting the Dots

    Each year, the students themselves decide on the theme and the working method of the project week. In 2022/23, the project week was all about ‘moving images’. The inspiration and guest lecturer was composer Jacob ter Veldhuis (Jacob TV), who over three days in October introduced the students to his artistic world of grooving boombox compositions based on speech samples, colourful orchestral works and his reality opera THE NEWS. Students worked in groups on their own concepts, coached by visual artist Donna Verheijden, composer and singer Brechtje van Dijk, improvisation specialist Jasper le Clercq and playwright Cecile Brommer. The project concluded with a performance in Focus Filmtheater in Arnhem.

    Examples from previous years include a collaboration with the organisation Sounds of Change, which introduced the students to its specific working method, and a project week about the theme of Grief, with guest lecturers from music therapy, theatre and design.

Research: theory and practice

Research is an important part of the Music Theatre master's course. During the study programme, you work on your own research, in which practice and theory meet. You approach the classes and blocks in the course based on your personal research question.

Supervised by a research coach, you immerse yourself in the specific knowledge that belongs to your subject and acquire relevant research skills that you will need in your future practice as a maker. You also form research circles with your fellow students from both the first and second years, in which you help and inspire each other by discussing experiences and themes. The course does not require you to write a dissertation. Instead, you write three essays in which you show in-depth knowledge and skills.

Research within a master's course is theoretical and academic? No way. Research is done mostly in the field, in the process, and often in collaboration with others.
FALK HÜBNER, research supervisor

Unique location: everything under one roof

The Music Theatre master's course is part of the ArtEZ Academy of Music. For students, this means that you are part of a diverse community of musicians and theatre makers: fellow students who are often already active in practice, have an extensive network and provide a rich source of knowledge and experience. In this interdisciplinary environment, there is scope to experiment with music, theatre and other disciplines. You study in a place where performing artists are developing, through experimentation, into versatile makers and performers: the music theatre pioneers of the future.

The Academy of Music is housed one of three connected buildings on the Rhine in Arnhem. Here you will also find the Academy of Theatre and Dance, the Academy of Art & Design and several master's courses. This combination of disciplines on one site is unique even at European level.

Projects

During the course, you elaborate your personal research question in projects that link in with your activities in practice or which you initiate and organise yourself as part of your studies. In line with your study plan, these may range from classical Greek music theatre to video opera and from performance in a black box theatre to a music theatre podcast. The course offers projects you can sign up for with our partners Sonnevanck, De Ereprijs orchestra, Via Berlin and De Nieuwe Oost. The course also organises projects with your fellow students from your own master's course as well as with other master's students at ArtEZ.

Course supervision

Every student is assigned a personal mentor. During the course, your mentor is your first point of contact: you have regular contact. Your mentor is the person with whom you draw up your study plan and compare it with your wishes and activities. You also discuss the timetable, your progress and any problems you may encounter.

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