Each year, in consultation with your mentor, you will write a personal study plan in which you formulate your learning goals, projects and research questions. You will have many options both within and outside the programme. You will decide which classes to take, which makers to invite and how to use your personal budget. You are in charge of your own development and responsible for your progress – with plenty of freedom. The only conditions are that you meet the required number of credits and that your components are artistically in line with your goals.
On the individual route, you will have the freedom to design your own study path. This may start from your instrument or voice, or from conceptual or interdisciplinary work. You will select lessons, modules, coaches and projects that match your practice. Would you like to develop your own performance form, focus on composition, or work with multimedia or text? You will make artistic choices that contribute to your personal growth.
In Performance Lab, you will gain stage experience and explore experimentation and artistic research. The focus is on three self-created productions. You will collaborate with fellow students from the Master of Music. Together, you will decide which guest lecturers to invite for workshops and masterclasses, and which themes and subjects to explore. Examples include working with video and visuals, music production, funding, radio making, set design, stage presentation, multidisciplinary work or composing for film.
Recent inspiring guests have included Tony Roe (Tin Men and the Telephone), Misha Mengelberg, Bob Mintzer (WDR Big Band) and Jules Buckley (Metropole Orchestra).
Connecting the Dots includes a project week, various workshops and the Meet the Master course. This part of the programme focuses on exchange, collaboration and connection: you will get a taste of other disciplines and benefit from working with makers who, like you, are developing their own practice.
The theme and approach of the project week are decided together each year. In 2025, guest artist and choreographer Martin Butler led a mini-festival of site-specific performances, guided by coaches specialising in text, improvisation, sound & space and graphic scores.
Another example was the 2022-23 theme "Moving images’" Guest lecturer and composer Jacob ter Veldhuis (Jacob TV) immersed the group for three days in a world of groove-heavy, speech sample-based boombox compositions, colourful orchestral works and the reality opera THE NEWS. Students worked in teams on their own concepts, supported by coaches from different disciplines. The week concluded with a performance at Focus Filmtheater Arnhem.
You can also take a Master of Music in Zwolle. There, the programme focuses more on performance and curatorship, while in Arnhem, the emphasis is on experimental performing and creating. In both variants, you are encouraged to make optimal use of the knowledge and education offered by the two cities. This allows you to develop your own unique graduation profile within the ArtEZ Academy of Music.