Bachelor of Arts in music
The Haute école de musique de Genève offers a course lasting three years leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and constituting 180 ECTS credits.
This training is a generalist one and prepares the students for entering the various Master’s courses. The study plans in the BA in music are rolled out in accordance with the specific features of the main subject.
Structure of the course
Main subject
The three years of the BA include a module dedicated to the study of the main subject (modern or historic instrument, song, composition, composition for image or conducting). This module is organised around individual classes on the main subject (80 minutes a week) and complementary classes required in order to achieve perfect mastery of interpretation or creation.
BA Project
Directly linked to the main subject, the BA project involves the preparation and presentation of an artistic production: a recital for performers or a creative work for composers. The personal essays and research papers that accompanied the drawing up of the artistic project are presented in a BA work (TBA) that takes the form of a Powerpoint presentation lasting 180 seconds.
Experience pathway
Dedicated to experience in the practice of music, in the form of chamber music or larger ensembles, this module punctuates the three years of the BA and offers the HEM’s students solid experience on the stage and numerous opportunities to appear in public. The classes on physical and mental preparation accompany this apprenticeship in public performance, by offering practical tools for managing stress.
General musical training
The three years of general music training offer the basic theoretical training necessary for all future music professionals, aimed at developing their general culture, their critical thinking, their knowledge of the repertoire and their ability to put together reasoned arguments. The module also includes preparation for music professions that provide the first tools required in order to contemplate entering professional life.
Opening module
In the second and third year of the BA, an opening module left to the student’s free choice enables them, in a spirit of openness, to gain an initiation in other disciplines, or, in contrast, to begin specializing with a view to choosing the Master’s course. Some of the opening modules also offer a first experience of inter-disciplinary studies.
Validation of the modules and teaching units
A module is validated and the corresponding credits are acquired at the time when all the teaching units of which it is made up are acquired. Each module must be taken and validated in the year stipulated by the programme of study. Students who have not managed, after a repeat attempt, to validate one of the modules, or who have not managed, at the end of their 8th term of studies, to validate all of the modules of which the BA is made up, are excluded.
