The FHNW Master of Arts in Specialised Music Performance Choral Conducting is aimed at students with a Bachelor or Master’s degree in Music who wish to pursue a career as a choral conductor.
Perfecting conducting, vocal and instrumental techniques
Students will work with both secular and sacred choral music. This specialised graduate programme aims to produce knowledgeable, versatile and flexible professional choral conductors. Students perfect their conducting, vocal and instrumental techniques, and benefit from tuition that draws on the latest research in a variety of fields such as historical performance practice. Students also learn to adopt a critical approach to the use and reading of primary sources.
Overview
Choral Conducting Minor – Course content:
Evaluating and honing one’s own conducting practice and methods
Development of an individual and expressive conducting idiom based on the technical knowledge and skills acquired to date
Expanding one’s conducting repertoire in preparation for a future career (repertoire for equal or mixed voices; a cappella and instrument repertoire; sacred and secular works; works of varying degrees of difficulty)
Practical work with university choirs, student ensembles and an external orchestra
Extensive exposure to and examination of historical performance practice, relevant source material and academic literature, writing a term paper
Conducting a concert of one’s own devising (Master’s qualification)
The FHNW Master of Arts in Specialised Music Performance Choral Conducting is aimed at musicians who wish to specialise in choral conducting.
Holders of a FHNW Master of Arts in Specialised Music Performance Choral Conducting are qualified to lead choirs and other vocal ensembles, whether amateur, semi-professional or professional, and different line-ups.
Core curriculum
Major module (81 CP):
Choral conducting Conducting studio Courses/projects Choir/chamber choir
Complementary courses
Practical module (27 CP): Conducting practice and rehearsal techniques Practical training with university choirs Practical training with external choirs Score reading
Admission criteria In order to enter the FHNW Master of Arts in Specialized Musical Performance programme with a Major in Choral Conducting, applicants must be in possession of a Bachelor in Music or a Bachelor in Music and Movement (or an equivalent degree) as well as they must have passed the entrance exam and were offered a free place at the Academy (limited places of admission). Applicants who have submitted all the necessary registration documents in time will be invited to a live audition. For further information on the admission criteria, please see the Studienreglement of the Master of Arts FHNW in Specialized Music Performance.
Required skills
Experience of reading choral scores of different musical styles and eras
Basic conducting skills
Ear training qualification (minimum mark of 4.8, or Grade C)
Excellent piano proficiency and basic score-playing/reading skills
Basic knowledge of early musical notation/clefs and transposing vocals
Choral and/or solo singing experience
Pedagogical abilities, leadership qualities
Language Skills We expect students to have sufficient German language skills at the beginning of the studies. Students who are not German native speakers must present a A2 German language certificate according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) at the beginning of the studies.
Entrance exam The entrance exam is split into several parts.
Procedure A. Individual exam (approx. 45 minutes) Piano Sight-reading of a chorale by Johann Sebastian Bach (with a min. of two systems and using modern clefs) Playing a technically challenging solo piece Playing an instrumental part in early clefs (soprano, alto, tenor clefs) or for voice transposition (clarinet, trumpet, horn) Singing Singing a song either a cappella or accompanied Score work Conducting two preprepared choral scores from different eras of the applicant’s choosing, e.g. madrigal, simple motet from the Baroque era or a Romantic choral Song, playing these on the piano, and singing the different parts thereof B. Choir rehearsal (approx. 20 minute) Prerequisite Passing part 1 Choir rehearsal Conducting a vocal ensemble (provided by the university) based on one or both scores presented during the technical exam.
Evaluation The jury consists of the lecturers of the respective major and a member of the directional board and they will evaluate the major exam.
Dates The live auditions will take place at the end of April. The exact dates may be seen here.
Registration You may apply between 15th December and 15th February. Along with the registration, it is mandatory to submit the following documents: A curriculum vitae, a motivational letter, the school leaving qualification, the Bachelor Diploma. In case that the applicant already holds a Master Diploma, we also need a copy of that.
Announcement of the results The results will be communicated by mail in May.
At Hochschule für Musik Basel, students have the opportunity to participate in various project and ensemble programmes. To the overview of the recurring offers.
Martin Wettges, born in Regensburg in 1983, studied conducting at the conservatories in Cincinnati, Vienna and Munich and has been choral director of the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo since 2018. Previously he held the same position at Opera North in Leeds. In 2016, he changed to the Meininger Staatstheater as choral director with conducting duties, where he regularly conducted symphony concerts with the traditional Meininger Hofkapelle in addition to opera performances. As a choral conductor, he has worked with the choir of the Herrenchiemsee Festival, the Meiningen Kantorei, the Munich Motet Choir, and many others. Martin Wettges is also artistic director of the choral festival Various Voices.
He lectured in conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich from 2008 to 2013. In 2012, he was also called to lecture at the Institute for Musicology at the LMU Munich. Since 2011, Martin Wettges has been artistic director of the Music Academy of the German National Academic Foundation in Brixen/South Tyrol, which he founded.
