Master of Fine Arts in Music with Specialisation in Improvisation and World Music Performance

Improvisation or World Music Performance

Encouraging your individual ideas in a diverse group: A large part of your work throughout the programme will be based on your own artistic specialisation and your project idea. You will work both independently and in groups and the ability to reflect both through music and in writing is required. The programme encourages cross-border meetings but also presupposes a clear immersion in the idea you have chosen for your independent project. Meeting with students with diverse backgrounds creates an inspirational environment for creativity and innovation. Openness, curiosity, and reflection are central concepts. In the seminars, ideas are tested in theory and practice together with your fellow students and with students from other master’s programmes and courses.

Preparing you for your future career: The different subjects help develop your written and oral tools with the overarching goal of meeting the requirements of professional life. The programme is international and offers excellent opportunities to network with musicians of different backgrounds. We also aim to prepare you for the role of freelance musician on the international level. You will also be prepared to pursue further studies at the postgraduate level in music focusing on musical performance, if you choose.

The programme is characterized by an interdisciplinary environment through interaction with fellow students and visiting lecturers, and we have close links to the research environment at the institution, faculty, and University. Our main teachers are Anders Hagberg, Thomas Markusson, Jonas Simonson and visiting lecturers Anders Jormin, Lena Willemark, Arve Henriksen. 

Programme structure and content

• Main Subject Master's Improvisation or Contemporary Traditional Music  (60 credits)
  Note: The subject Contemporary Traditional Music was formerly named World Music.
  These courses support you in developing a clear personal profile. During each semester, a concert is prepared and performed, which is also the basis for your independent project. You also participate in artistic international collaboration projects with other master's programmes.
• Independent Project (degree project) (30 credits).
  You investigate a question or an artistic problem within your main area in a methodical way, applying both musical performance and reflecting text. The work leads to a finished, artistically reflective presentation that includes audio/video documentation, alternatively a self-produced score or equivalent, as well as a written reflective text in any format.
• The Reflective Artist (18 credits).
  You meet experienced practitioners from a variety of artistic fields in talks, seminars and workshops. Within these courses, you also present and discuss artistic and theoretical starting points for your independent work.
• Master's seminars (12 credits).
  Includes seminars, workshops and lectures on themes that connect to the main subject in a wider, partly interdisciplinary context, and take place in collaboration with the master's programmes in Improvisation (The Composing Musician), and Composition (Experimental Composition and Creation).