Student projects in Music and Research, Hochschule für Musik Basel

The heart of my project begins with a historical paradox. In 18th and 19th century Europe, adequate skills on the piano were a central tenet in the education of women in higher social classes. Inherent in this pianism was also the ability to accompany singers, and Lied and Art Song were therefore among the few genres where women had legitimacy and agency not only as singers, but also as instrumentalists and composers. It is therefore a great paradox to me that Lied and Art Song accompaniment became largely reserved for men in the 20th century, and still is today. 
Public Private Pianism is a project title which refers to the social, musical, and epistemic changes that came when the performance of Lied and Art song moved from semi-private performance contexts of the 19th century and into the concert and recording formats of the 20th century. In it, I ask how social and historical developments influenced not only who was allowed to perform the Lied canon depending on the social circumstances, but also how these changes subsequently influenced how Lied and Art song are interpreted and performed to this day. 
A central aspect of my research is applying the epistemologist Miranda Fricker’s theory of epistemic injustice, in which she outlines when repressed groups are “harmed in their capacity as a knower,” to musical performance. In this part of the research, I look at how one can view musical performance as a case of epistemic testimony, viewing the performer as a knower and the musical performance as their subsequent testimony. Hence, the epistemic theory provides a framework within which it is possible to discuss the reception of an artistic performance by addressing the non-musical factors in the performance’s reception. In my artistic practice, I not only study historical performance practices of the Lied repertoire, but I also explore different artistic approaches to the idea of musical performance as a form of epistemic testimony. Particularly, I am interested in the role of bodily knowledge, since gender is, amongst many things, also a bodily experience. As my project revolves around social aspects which influence music-making and its reception, I explore placing the Lied outside its social and historical context, mainly through improvisation and programme curation.

Duration 2026-2028
Mentors Prof. Dr. Anne-May Krüger, Prof. Tobias Schabenberger

Physical and psychological challenges among musicians are well documented. Less attention has been paid to students’ own holistic experiences throughout their studies, and how institutional structures interact with these complex issues. Through in-depth interviews, this project will analyse the lived experiences of conservatory students in order to explore the conditions under which artistic excellence is developed and sustained. 
This project will employ a qualitative research design situated within an artistic research framework. Using an exploratory approach will allow themes to emerge from participants’ experiences. In addition to participant interviews, reflective observations from my own artistic practice as a concert guitarist may be documented and incorporated. This will complement the interview data and strengthen the connection between artistic practice and research.  
The social media platform “Healthy Musicians Project” will also be used to document my research insights and insights from my own experience, as well as serve as an organisational and informational basis for my research. The project aims to contribute to a holistic and sustainable educational culture in conservatories around the world by documenting student experiences, understanding the beliefs inherent in performing environments and promoting transparency in the pedagogical environment. 

Duration 2026-2028
Mentors Prof. Dr. Anne Günster, Prof. Dr. med. MA Horst Hildebrandt, Prof. Pablo Márquez
Study Programme: MA MP with 2nd Major in Music and Research

Malcolm Braff: Fractal Swing and the Bow

This project investigates the performability of fractal swing — self-similar rhythmic structures generated by iterated swinging substitution rules — in the specific context of bowed string playing. Building on the Generalized Theory of Swing (GToS), a framework developed over twenty years of practice, and on its recent extension into fractal swing (Braff, 2026, Puigcerdà), the research explores how these structures can be embodied and realized at the bow. Methods combine my own perceptual and theoretical exploration, taxonomic analysis of bowing techniques in collaboration with violinist Paula Pérez, the development of études for violin, and the composition of a string quartet as empirical site of verification. The long-term horizon of this work is the establishment of a performance practice offractal swing, opening the GToS framework to the world of classical music.

Duration 2025-2027
Mentors Dr. Michael Kunkel, Prof. Dr. Michel Roth

Łukasz Moroz: Diaphonic cycles and the linear pitch tradition

This artistic research project investigates just intonation practice from a composer-theorist perspective. When a composer works with tuning, the question of how to generate pitch material is rarely settled. I begin this investigation from the question of metrics in a musical space: how is a musical space quantified, and how does the choice of metric affect the way pitch relations are organised?
Musical interval can be understood through several different metrics: acoustic frequency, physical string length or perceived pitch distance. From this perspective, the research investigates the unformalised theory of american music theorist Erv Wilson called diaphonic cycle: a modular pitch structure generated through linear division of two strings.
The research follows a critical comparative musicology approach, questioning the assumption that influence between traditions moves in only one direction. It resists the treatment of non-equal-tempered systems as pre-modern anticipations of later Western tunings. The aim is to recover an underacknowledged arithmetic pitch lineage connecting medieval Islamic theory, early twentieth-century British musicology, and twentieth-century American experimental tuning practice.
Ultimately, the relevance of the project lies in what this specific, undertheorised system makes available: an expanded view of just intonation as a method of constructing musical spaces and modal identities. By formalising and extending Wilson’s diaphonic theory, the research develops new compositional and theoretical possibilities within this linear pitch lineage.

Duration 2025-2027
Mentors Dr. Christoph Haffter, Prof. Dr. Michel Roth (2025-26), Dr. Jaronas Scheurer (2026-27), Prof. Caspar Johannes Walter (2026-27)

Mads Emil Nielsen: Framework / Fragments

Framework / Fragments (working title) is a project based on graphic score explorations and a direct, visual approach to sound and composition. As a musician/composer I have been interested in architecture and graphic design and the question of how to intuitively sonify an image / “how does an image sound?” and in translating sounds and music into illustrations and scores. With this project, I would like to research texture and materiality, and visual qualities of sound, and the connections between visual materials and recordings.
The work is based on exchanging and producing multiple sound pieces and graphic score fragments. I see this as a research process and exploration, and feedback system with the potential of generating a large amount of sketches and material, also later in this process by collaborating with others – musicians, composers, graphic designers. In general, the work is based on a fascination of working with mainly basic electronic sound sources and analog electronic instruments, also in combination with entirely digital sounds and granulations, and emphasising and amplifying unpredictability, surprises, micro-events, noises and error sounds. I am interested in exploring how these recordings can already have “visual” qualities.
The process of producing and exchanging pieces and graphic score fragments will happen in several parts – starting from either one recording or drawing. Each piece / score is interpreted in multiple turns, back and forth, sound to image. In this process, I would like to research various material such as architectural sketches, historic and contemporary graphic scores, maps and experimental graphic design. I would also like to develop various methods and systems of describing and analysing the audio material, and other types of recordings in general (short texts, questionnaire, hörprotokoll). The intention is then to create a large archive of material which is edited, possibly deconstructed into final scores and compositions.
I am interested in how this work and output, which is strongly related to movements and aesthetics in sound and graphics from the 1960s-70s, can be placed and exist in a contemporary context. And in doing comparisons between these historic works and contemporary graphic notation projects & recordings. I would also like to research the following question: how can this material as music / sound in finalized recordings, and performances, diffusions or live compositions have materiality in sounds themselves, and these graphic, visual, or even (although perhaps more abstract) “architectural” qualities – e.g. being presented in stereo without using several loudspeakers, and without any of the visual material being present? This is something that I often miss when being part of the audience at presentations of graphic notation projects and “visual music”.

Duration 2025-27
Mentors Prof. Svetlana Maraš, Dr. Christoph Haffter

Vittoria Pagani: Reinventing the Unwritten: Hindustani Music in Western Higher Music Education and Artistic Practice

This research investigates how the integration of Hindustani music's oral–aural tradition can expand pedagogical approaches, enrich artistic practice, and foster intercultural dialogue in higher music education. Drawing on an introductory Hindustani music course at the Musik-Akademie Basel, anonymous student surveys, artistic collaborations with practitioners from various modal traditions, and interviews with students engaged in other oral and modal pedagogical contexts, the study explores how listening, memorization, imitation, and guided improvisation relate to motivation and learning. Combining pedagogical analysis, qualitative observation, and theoretical reflection, the study aims to surface tensions and challenges between institutional conditions and participants' experiences, within intercultural pedagogical and artistic collaborative contexts. In light of these, it seeks to identify favourable criteria and institutional conditions that can support creativity, agency, and well-being.

Duration 2025-2027
Mentors Dr. Budhaditya Chattopadhyay (Sept.-Dec. 2025), Prof. Dr. Anne Günster (2026-27), Prof. Dr. Anne-May Krüger

Arthur Wilkens: Ars organisandi: late medieval organ improvisation

Ars organisandi: late medieval organ improvisation Keyboard music of the Middle-Ages has come down to us in the form of organ tablatures and pedagogic methods known as Fundamenta organisandi. My aim is to engage practically with this surviving material as traces of an orally transmitted tradition in which improvisation and the use of memory played a central role. Developing the skills described in the sources of the Ars organisandi requires a radical shift in how we conceive of music pedagogy today. While traditional musicology has placed much emphasis on the concepts of the musical “work” and authorship, a significant portion of medieval sources focuses instead on the process of making music – an approach that could be described as non-compositional. This research project is an experimental attempt to embody the mindset of late medieval instrumentalists in contemporary music-making. It is also a practical reflection on the generative nature of this music: an interesting encounter between two distinct yet complementary traditions – the ancient Ars organica and the mensural music of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Duration 2025-2027
Mentors Prof. Dr. Martin Kirnbauer, Prof. Dr. David Mesquita

Researching about?

Dakota Wayne about his research project in MA SP Music and Research /2023