Composition and theory department

The composition and theory department is a hub for teaching, creativity and experimentation in the field of composition, electro-acoustic composition, composition for the moving image and multimedia creation.

Starting in the 2026-27 academic year, the HEM will implement a new organizational structure for its composition and theory department in order to offer a more coherent grouping of disciplines and programs and thus enhance the clarity of its educational offerings. This single department will be divided into two distinct departments:

The Creation Department will bring together courses in the fields of composition, mixed and multimedia composition, composition for film, the performer-composer option of the Master's in Musical Performance, concert orientation, and the new Master's in Musical Project Creation. The department will also bring together all cross-disciplinary activities in the field of contemporary creation. It will also house the CIMME (Interdisciplinary Center for Experimental Music and Media) and the ARTeM (Center for Technical Support and Production) serving the HEM and its actors. Responsibility for the new Creation department has been handed over to Julien Annoni, who is already in charge of the new Master's in Music Project Creation.

The Musical Culture and Theoretical Practices Department will bring together Master's programs in the fields of theory, pedagogy, and ethnomusicology. The department will also include all courses related to theoretical practices (general music education Bachelor's degree, research-related courses, Bachelor's degree in music and musicology). It will also house the Center for Cultures, a place for teaching, research, and mediation in the field of music from other cultural areas. Responsibility for the new Musical Culture and Theoretical Practices department has been handed over to Talia Bachir-Loopuyt, professor of ethnomusicology at the HEM and head of the Center for Cultures.

It houses It houses the Centre ARTeM – a support and technical production centre for musicians – and the CIMME – Interdisciplinary Centre for Experimental Music and Media – dedicated to contemporary creation and artistic experimentation in the era of immersive and interactive technologies. The CME collaborates closely with similar centres such as the IRCAM or McGill University. Moreover, the department is also the skills centre in the field of music theory, whose expertise is centred on Western musical language, but is also expanding to non-European traditions.

The main subjects taught are composition, electro-acoustic composition, mixed and multimedia composition, music writing and music theory.

The Department Through Videos

Composition

Composition à l'image

Composition mixte

Composition multimédia

Grands ensembles

Musique contemporaine

Performer-composer

Pratique de l'écriture

Studies

Bachelor of Arts¹
Master of Arts⁵

Bachelor of Arts in music

Master of Arts in Music Composition and Theory

Master of Arts in Music Project Creation

Master of Arts in Music Performance

Master of Arts in Specialised Music Performance

FORMATION PEDAGOGIE MUSICALE guitare reduit

Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy

Teachers of major disciplines

Julien Annoni

Head of Creation département and Master in Music project creation coordinator

Julien Annoni is a percussionist, cultural mediator and event organiser. His life as an artist is characterised by a subtle blend of each of these elements. Julien Annoni is co-founder of the Usinesonore association (2006), which explores the possibilities of staging contemporary events in a spirit of renewed artistic discovery. It was primarily for this project that he was awarded the 2019 Cultural Mediation Prize by the Canton of Bern. In 2018, he took over as artistic director of the ensemble We Spoke, which performs regularly throughout Europe. Since 2019, he has been in charge of the new musical season ‘Les Battements de l’Abbatiale’ at the Abbatiale de Bellelay. Deeply committed to cultural life, he served on the board of trustees of the Théâtre du Jura until 2021. In 2023, he spearheaded the creation of the cultural umbrella organisation Grand Chasseral. He is also a member of the committee of La Marmite and the artistic committee of Impulse Neue Musik. He has been deputy director of the Bernese Jura Music School since 2020. As a performer in other productions, he has appeared notably in *The Lion King* (2015), alongside Sylvie Courvoisier (2023) and currently with Erika Stucky. He joined the HEM in 2025 as coordinator of the Master’s programme in musical project creation and took over as head of the Creation department in 2026

Nicolas Bolens

Professor of Counterpoint, 20th-Century Writing, and Practical Writing

En associant traditions et explorations nouvelles des matières sonores, les œuvres de Nicolas Bolens investissent l’espace en valorisant les éléments et les sujets qui se présentent à lui. Combining traditions and new explorations of sound materials, the works of Nicolas Bolens invest in space by enhancing the elements and subjects that present themselves to him. His music is regularly connected to other elements: texts, films, places, evocations... In each context, he seeks an authentic dramaturgy that promotes unprecedented settings. For example, with the Batida ensemble, he imagined "Welcome to the Castle" (2017), three musical acts for musicians moving through the Allymes Castle near Amberieu-en-Bugey. For the Gémeau Quartet, he wrote "La Ville Oblique" (2013), a string quartet conceived as a musical extension of the short film "Un Chien Andalou" by Dalí and Buñuel. Written words, most often poetic, permeate his entire production. He has composed on poems by Celan, Sachs, Mallarmé, Char, Blok, Khayyam, Michaux, Éluard, Basho, Neruda, Rilke, Adonis, Shakespeare... These authors, from various times and origins, have led him to integrate many languages into his works, considering their sonic as well as semantic potentials. Orchestration also holds an important place in his work, rethinking the instrumentation of certain past works. In 2018, he re-orchestrated "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" and the 4th Symphony by Gustav Mahler for the Lemanic Modern Ensemble under the direction of conductor Pierre Bleuse. Commissioned by the association Ouverture Opera, his recent rewriting of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" follows the same approach. Nicolas Bolens has notably collaborated with the Batida ensemble, the Lemanic Modern Ensemble, the Swiss Chamber Soloists, the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, the Ensemble Vocal Polhymnia, the Ensemble Vortex, the Basler Madrigalisten, and the Ensemble Vocal Séquence... Born in Geneva, he first studied piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève, then completed his training in the composition class of Jean Balissat. He further honed his skills with Rudolph Kelterborn, Klaus Huber, Edison Denisov, and Eric Gaudibert. He is the recipient of numerous composition prizes, including those from the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (1993) and the Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise (2002), as well as a scholarship from the Leenaards Foundation (1998). An engaged pedagogue and artist, he teaches counterpoint, 20th-century writing, and composition at the Haute école de musique de Genève, where he has been the head of the Composition and Theory Department from 2015 to 2024. He is also involved in several institutions related to musical creation in Switzerland, including the Swiss Musicians Association, the Archipel Festival Association, the Nicati-de-Luze Foundation, and the Artistic Council of the Geneva Competition. Learn more about Nicolas Bolens  

Gilbert Nouno

Head of the CIMME - Professor of Electronic Music - Multimedia Composition - Interactive Video Design - Internet Music - Interfaces, Digital Instrument Making & Immersive Systems - Concept & Creation, Open Space

Composer, sound artist, pedagogue, and researcher, Gilbert Nouno creates music that is highly in tune with visual arts and digital technologies. Curious about all forms of expression, he effortlessly crosses the boundaries between composition and improvisation. As a visual artist under the name Til Berg, he combines the synesthesia of sound arts with other media. Using music and sounds, he generates abstract and minimalist visuals with traditional and digital media such as video and lithography. Gilbert Nouno's collaborations are marked by aesthetic plurality with many artists such as Pierre Boulez and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, George Benjamin and the London Sinfonietta, Jonathan Harvey and the Arditti Quartet, saxophonist Steve Coleman, and flutist Magic Malik... A laureate of the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto in 2007, and the Villa Medici, Académie de France in Rome in 2011-2012, Gilbert Nouno teaches composition and runs the International Center for Experimental Music and Media (CIMME) at the Haute école de musique de Genève, teaches composition at the Royal College of Music in London , and is a visiting professor invited by the DAAD in Detmold (Germany). He teaches digital sound arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is also a guest researcher, and live electronics & computer music design at Ircam. Learn more about Gilbert Nouno

Charlotte Perrey Beaude

Professor of Writing Practice - Cadence Writing - Music Theory

Charlotte Perrey began her musical studies with piano, quickly developing a strong inclination for improvisation and composition. After studying in advanced mathematics classes, she fully devoted herself to music and specialized in writing under the guidance of Stéphane Delplace. She continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, where she earned First Prizes in Harmony, Counterpoint, 20th-21st Century Writing, Fugue and Forms, as well as the Marcel Dautremer Prize. She studied notably with Jean-François Zygel, Thierry Escaich, and Marc-André Dalbavie. She currently teaches at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and the Haute école de musique de Genève.

Stefan Prins

Professor of electroacoustic and mixed composition

Stefan Prins will take up his post in September 2026 Stefan Prins (Belgium, 1979) is a composer and performer whose music often includes and reflects on contemporary technologies and new media, thematizing their relationship with the physical, performing body and the environments it inhabits. After graduating as an engineer, he studied piano, composition and music technology at the Conservatories of Flanders (Antwerp), Brussels and The Hague. In 2017 he obtained a PhD in composition at Harvard University under the guidance of Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. He received many international awards such as the “Kunstpreis Berlin für Musik”, “Kranichsteiner Musikpreis für Komposition” or the “ISCM Young Composers Award”. His music is performed worldwide on festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Wittener Tage für Neue Musik, Eclat, Warsaw Autumn, Ultraschall Berlin, Wien Modern, Gaudeamus Festival, Tzlil Meudcan, Impuls Festival, Rainy Days Festival, Transit & Ultima Festival. He has collaborated closely with Nadar Ensemble – of which he is artistic co-director, Klangforum Wien, Nikel Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Modern, Trio Accanto, Arditti Quartet, MusikFabrik, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg & BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and soloists such as Yaron Deutsch, Stephane Ginsburgh, Rei Nakamura, Florentin Ginot, Severine Ballon & Ning Yu. His music has been released on the labels Sub Rosa, Kairos, Wergo and Neos. Prins also performs regularly in the improvised music scene (electronics), amongst others with Yaron Deutsch in the Ministry of Bad Decisions. He taught at Academies such as the Darmstadt Summercourses, Impuls Academy or Syntetis Academy, was guest-professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music Oslo & HK Bern and has served as a professor of composition and director of the Hybrid Music Lab at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden from 2020-2026. Stefan Prins Website  

Nicolas Rabaeus

Professeur de composition à l'image - musique et cinéma

Born in Geneva on 6 May 1984, Nicolas Rabaeus is a Swiss composer specialising in music for moving images. He mainly creates his music by recording and synthesising instruments and objects in his studio in Geneva, which he then combines with other musicians and ensembles. Classically and jazz trained, he is equally comfortable with an orchestra in a concert hall as he is creating experimental textures with a modular synthesiser, or even with a guitar playing pop songs. This horizontal approach to music is his signature and helps him find a unique sound for each score. His music has won several awards, including the Swiss Film Award (2023, for Foudre), the Colombier-Dompierre Award in Montreal (2023, for Foudre), and the Kinotavr Award in Sochi (2015, for Le syndrome de Petrushka). Over the past fifteen years, he has worked on more than fifty projects with European and Swiss filmmakers.

Katharina Rosenberger

Professor of composition

The works of composer Katharina Rosenberger take listeners to unknown places. Born in Zurich in 1971, the artist takes an interdisciplinary approach and uses unusual combinations. Her works draw on artistic fields and media such as video, visual arts and theatre. Her sound art and sound sculptures challenge our listening habits and draw attention to the way we perceive music and works of art. Katharina Rosenberger studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, the Royal Academy of Music in London and Columbia University in New York. Since 2018, she has been a professor at the University of California, San Diego, where she previously taught composition and sound art. In 2021, she was appointed professor of composition in Lübeck. In 2019, Katharina Rosenberger received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Katharina Rosenberger's works have received numerous awards; her project ‘VIVA VOCE’ was supported by the Federal Office of Culture and her album ‘TEXTUREN’, performed by the New York ensemble Wet Ink, received the prestigious Copland Recording Grant and the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik prize. Katharina Rosenberger's works can be discovered at international festivals. Attending a live performance is an experience that leaves a lasting impression on the senses.

Rodolphe Schacher

Professor of Writing Practice - Analysis - Harmony - Counterpoint

Franco-Swiss composer and pianist Rodolphe Schacher was born in France in 1973. Schacher pursued his musical studies in Paris, Geneva, and Zurich, under the guidance of Michael Jarrell, Thierry Escaich, Gerald Bennett, and Ulrich Koella. He has been awarded five first prizes (harmony, counterpoint, Renaissance counterpoint, fugue and forms, and 20th-century music) at the CNSM in Paris and received the composition and theory diploma with honors, as well as the concert diploma in chamber music from the Zurich University of the Arts. Alongside his artistic activities, Schacher teaches analysis and writing at the Haute école de musique de Genève, writing at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, and taught composition until June 2015 at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Antoine Schneider

Professor of Practical Writing - Contrepoint

After studying violin and musicology in Geneva, Antoine Schneider furthered his musical theory education in Zurich with Burkhard Kinzler and Andreas Nick. He also trained in musical direction, piano, and baroque violin. He is currently a professor of solfège and counterpoint at the Haute école de musique de Genève and the Haute école des arts de Berne, as well as a professor of musical training at the ESM Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Early Music Department). In his teaching, he specializes in the practices of musical improvisation during the Renaissance period. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses across Europe and collaborates with Jean-Yves Haymoz, Barnabé Janin (CNSMD Lyon), and the Helicona project. He is the co-responsible for the website Super librum cantare (www.superlibrum.com).

Photo portrait du compositeur Stefan Prins

Teachers of minor disciplines

Louis Absil
Solfège , Harmonie au clavier
Samuel Albert
Acoustique et régie musicale, Séminaire d'acoustique
Julien Annoni
Création de projets musicaux, Préparation aux métiers MA (cours)
Vincent Arlettaz
Histoire de la musique , Initiation à la recherche , Atelier de recherche MA
Luciano Azzigotti
Internet music
Nicolas Bolens
Écriture du 20e siècle, Pratique de l'écriture - Discipline principale MA , Harmonie, Analyse (pour les théoricien-ne-s), Écriture
Victor Manuel Cordero Charles
Éléments d'analyse, Analyse, Orchestration, Pratique de l'écriture - Discipline principale MA , Édition de partitions à l'ordinateur, Analyse (pour les théoricien-ne-s), Écriture
Jean-Loup Dartigues
Didactique instrumentale ou vocale
Orane Dourde
Préparation au travail de Bachelor, Travail de Bachelor (TBA)
Carolina Gauna
Travail de Bachelor (TBA), Initiation à la recherche , Atelier de recherche MA
Bänz Isler
Musique et cinéma - technique
Gilbert Nouno
Concept & Création - Open Space, Composition électronique et multimédia - Discipline principale MA, Esthétique et théorie des nouveaux médias, Interfaces – lutherie numérique & systèmes immersifs, Multimédia , Musique électronique BA, Musique électronique MA, Collaboration compositeur-ice et interprètes, Séminaire collectif de composition
Thomas Penanguer
Design vidéo interactif
Charlotte Perrey Beaude
Solfège , Écriture de cadences, Pratique de l'écriture - Discipline principale MA , Écriture
David Poissonnier
Séminaire d'acoustique, Technique audio et studio, Interprétation de musiques mixtes, Technique audio, scène, concerts
Stefan Prins
Composition électroacoustique, Composition mixte - Discipline principale MA
Nicolas Rabaeus
Ateliers et rencontres, Création de projets musicaux, Projet avec la HEAD ou stage, Musique et cinéma - théorie, Composition à l'image - Discipline principale BA, Séminaire collectif de composition
Luca Ricossa
Ensemble grégorien, Monodies liturgiques
Katharina Rosenberger
Composition - Discipline principale BA, Composition - Discipline principale MA, Séminaire collectif de composition, Collaboration compositeur-ice et interprètes
Rodolphe Schacher
Analyse, Éléments d'analyse, Harmonie, Cours d'appui pour la formation musicale générale, Pratique de l'écriture - Discipline principale MA , Analyse (pour les théoricien-ne-s), Techniques d'écriture, Écriture
Antoine Schneider
Pratique de l'écriture - Discipline principale MA , Analyse (pour les théoricien-ne-s), Écriture
Denis Schuler
Préparation aux métiers MA (projet personnel)
Pierre-André Taillard
Séminaire d'acoustique

Accompanists

Research projects

PISTES

Image en négative d'un orchestre de musique contemporaine

APCOR

ORCHIS/ORVEO

Génétique de la composition musicale

Events

Concert

On Air !

<p>Our young composers</p>

Fri 02 October 2026

18h - 20h Auditorium Ansermet

Testimonials

J’ai choisi la HEM pour la renommée de son équipe pédagogique et l’importance des moyens qu’elle met à la disposition de ses étudiant-e-s dans le domaine de la musique électro-acoustique
Nicolas Roulive Etudiant en Master de composition