Cité de la musique

The City of Music project barely rejected

To all the people who participated in the campaign promoting the Cité de la musique, who played for it, who invested their time and energy in this project and who gave their vote for the music, we send you a very special thank you.
Thank you for having believed in this project and for having supported it!

An inspiring, open and living new space.

The City of Music will welcome a wide audience through the programming of concerts, various musical and artistic activities and pedagogical projects. As a unique teaching venue, it will bring together under one roof the 515 students of the Haute école de Musique, who are currently dispersed over nine sites. It will promote musical creation and synergies with the musicians of the OSR. Artists will also be able to develop in this unique and inspiring place, from learning to professional activity, through listening to the musical works already created and conceiving the works of tomorrow.

The importance of the City of Music for the Hem

As a high place for professional musical training and a partner of many Swiss and foreign institutions, the HEM is open to the European musical heritage, to world music and to emerging creation, including in its interdisciplinary and digital dimensions. It trains its students in the socio-cultural realities of their profession.

Adapted premises

Following the dissociation of the Geneva Conservatory of Music ordered by the political authorities in 2009, the HEM still does not have its own premises adapted to the professional learning of music in the 21st century. Its activities are spread over nine buildings, to which are added various occasional rentals. It has no real institutional living space (concert and production rooms, cafeteria, etc.), nor places adapted to mediation activities for new audiences (children, disabled audiences, etc.)

An innovating concept

The architectural programme of the City of Music Cité fully meets the needs of the HEM in a sustainable manner - culturally and ecologically - in terms of volume, acoustic quality and technological performance. The City of Music is an innovative concept that encourages productive interaction between professional music training and professional ensembles (including those formed by our graduates. It is designed to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue, creative digital uses, cultural mediation activities and learning about the 'backstage' jobs in music (technical, production, communication, etc.).

An open place for all

The keyword of the City of Music is opening up: to cultural diversity, to different generations, to the people of Geneva and to passing music lovers. The City of Music project is therefore a reflection of our city and our region and ideally completes the current topography of places devoted to music, some of which are insufficient or obsolete. Almost entirely financed by private funds, it provides a unique opportunity to bring together musicians and audiences by designing quality programmes, without affecting the resources allocated by the Geneva City to professional musicians.

Finally, the City of Music will give the HEM the visibility it needs to fulfil its mission: the training of professional musicians in a space that is widely open to the public, designed to encourage creation and artistic collaboration.