Who are we?

The “Haute école de musique de Genève” (Geneva HEM) offers a range of studies that cover all the functions of music: playing, singing, reading, writing, improvising and thinking. It provides professional training in music education, music performance, composition, music theory and eurhythmics.

As an institution of higher education, the Geneva HEM also conducts research, particularly in the fields of historically informed performance, musical creation and new technologies, approaches to music via psychology and neuroscience, and dialogue with non western music. These research activities are kept in tune with artistic practice, and supplements university research, in a spirit of creativity and innovation that allows students to develop their reflective and critical abilities.

It also provides lifelong training for professional musicians, and makes its artistic productions publicly available in regular concerts throughout Switzerland and the rest of the world.

The Geneva HEM’s training is provided at the following city-centre sites: Place Neuve, rue Petitot, rue du Diorama, Rue du Général-Dufour, UniMail and rue de la Terrassière. Its administrative offices are in rue de la Synagogue.

A number of disciplines – singing, piano and strings (violin, viola, cello and double bass) - are taught at the Geneva HEM Neuchâtel branch, in the Arc 1 campus (next to Neuchâtel’s railway station).
 

To find out more about the school, WATCH OUR SELECTION :

ORCHESTRA PROJECTS, AN INSPIRATION FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

The orchestral sessions of the HEM, organised several times a year, allow students and teachers to work together on large-scale projects and to learn from each other. Playing in public in one of Geneva's most beautiful concert halls is also a unique experience.  
►Backstage report on the "German Romantic Music" concert

A SCHOOL FIRMLY ESTABLISHED IN THE HEART OF THE CITY

The HEM has forged links with many institutions in the city and is involved on a daily basis in the cultural life of the region. Invited as a musical partner for the inauguration of the new Cornavin train station, the students and professors of the HEM gave high quality performances in front of an enthusiastic audience.
►Immersion report and glimpses of some performances for the public

EDUCATIONAL TRAININGS IN PARTNER SCHOOLS, A CHALLENGE TO BE TAKEN UP

In order to offer them a variety of experiences, students have the opportunity to go on pedagogical internships during their training at partner schools. The HEM collaborates every year with NEOJIBA in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, and allows its young musicians to teach young people from less privileged backgrounds.
► A report from a summer internship, during which the students give their impressions

MULTIDISCIPLINARY TRAINING BASED ON THE JAQUES-DALCROZE METHOD 

On the occasion of a project carried out within the music and movement department of the HEM, students and professors express themselves and share their enthusiasm for this training based on the principles of the Jaques-Dalcroze method, which is itself based on the movement-music relationship and instrumental, vocal and physical improvisation.
►A report to discover a facet of this rich and varied teaching

COMPOSITION AT THE HEM, A FIELD OF CREATION AND EXCELLENCE   

The composition class at the HEM is a centre of creativity and offers courses of study under the direction of renowned professors. During two concerts, young composers talk about their approach, their expectations and the reasons that led them to choose this way. One of the richnesses of the training is the close link with students from other departments.
►Reportage within the composition class during concert rehearsals

INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS DEVELOPED FOR EXCHANGE OPPORTUNITIES

The HEM has forged close links for several years with partner institutions, whose joint projects have an educational, societal and intercultural ambition. It is part of various international networks with which it shares the same values of high standards and quality, and collaborates on specific projects.
►Report in Palestine during a symphonic orchestra session with the two schools

INNOVATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS CARRIED OUT BY PROFESSORS WITHIN THE SCHOOL 

Technology is an integral part of music today, and the HEM is concerned with developing new tools that can be used in musical practice. "Gesture Kinect and Percussion" is a research project that aims to explore the control of virtual instruments based on the analysis of percussionists' specific gestures.
►Reportage with Philippe Spiesser, percussion teacher and initiator of the project

AMBITIOUS MUSICAL PROJECTS PROPOSED BY THE SCHOOL AND ITS PARTNERS 

Partial performance of two masterpieces from the collaboration between Voltaire and Rameau, La Princesse de Navarre and Le Temple de la gloire with the Baroque Orchestra of the HEM. A collaboration with the Geneva University, the Saison Voltaire and the Esplanade du lac.
►Pictures of the concert conducted by Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord teacher at the HEM

PERFORMANCES DESIGNED AS IMMERSION IN THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD

Every two years, in co-production with the HEMU and other Swiss music schools, the HEM offers operas or musicals, a way of preparing its student singers and instrumentalists for the professional world they will enter after their studies.
►Images of the famous musical Cabaret, featured in the Galpon season