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Master’s Degree in Contemporary Music Creation

European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Level 7 and Spanish Framework of Higher Education Qualifications (MECES) Level 3 Degree.

Approval Certificate of the Master’s Degree

 

2024-25 ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS: FIRST CALL IN MARCH

Register for the online informative talk!

Why study the Master in Contemporary Music Creation at Musikene?

Comprehensive training

Choose the composition teacher you want to work with and learn from the composers who have made Musikene a reference center in Europe.

Innovation

Train in acoustic, electroacoustic, and audiovisual composition and in relation to other arts and disciplines.

Resident ensembles

Develop your composition project through meetings with the most outstanding ensembles in Europe, both in their country of origin and at Musikene: Diotima Quartet (2021), Ensemble InterContemporain (2022), Klangforum Wien (2023), Ensemble Ascolta (2024) and Ensemble Court-Circuit (2025). They will premiere your works!

Flexibility

Schedules concentrated so that you can combine the Master with your professional activity outside Donostia - San Sebastián.

Info:

REGISTRATION: from 1st to 20th February 2024
ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS: ONLINE, recordings sent 5th and 6th March 2024
MATRICULATION: ONLINE in April
SECOND CALL: June 2024
ACADEMIC CALENDAR: from the end of September 2024 to June 2025
PLACES OFFERED: 4 per academic year

CONTACT

Contact for further information: master@musikene.eus

Musikene. Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco (Higher Centre of Music of the Basque Country).
MÁSTER CREACIÓN 2024-2025
Europa Plaza n.º 2
20018 Donostia-San Sebastián
Gipuzkoa

Typology of the places:
  • Composition: 4
STRUCTURE OF THE MASTERS DEGREE
  • Number of credits of the qualification: 120 ECTS
  • Compulsory subjects: 86 ECTS
  • Optional subjects: 12 ECTS
  • External work experience: 5 ECTS
  • Dissertation: 17 ECTS
CURRICULUM
1st YEAR
YEAR SUBJECTS ECTS
COMP Composition I 14
COMP Professional Development 5
COMP Composition with electro-acoustic and audiovisual media 16
TERM SUBJECTS
FIRST TRM
ECTS
COMP Extended Instrumental Techniques 3
OP Optional 1 6
DISS Methodology of research 5
TERM SUBJECTS
SECOND TERM
ECTS
COMP Ensemble I 6
COMP Creation-interpretation dialogue 5
2nd YEAR
YEAR SUBJECTS ECTS
COMP Composition II 14
TERM SUBJECTS
THIRD TERM
ECTS
COMP Ensemble II 6
COMP Interdisciplinary creation projects 6
P External project 5
OP Optional 2 6
TERM SUBJECTS
FOURTH TERM
ECTS
COMP Ensemble III 6
COMP Recording and post-production techniques 5
DISS Dissertation 12
Contents y methodology
CONTENTS

The Masters Degree is structured in five modules:

  • Module I Obligatory Speciality: focusses on the specific subjects referring to contemporary creation using creative interaction during the preparation and presentation of the contemporary music works. It comprises the subjects of Composition and Composition with Electro-acoustic and Audiovisual Media, and also offers the chance to compose in relation to other arts. Students can choose the composer with whom they wish to work and, especially in the second year, choose him or her according to the compositional project they wish to carry out. Likewise, annual masterclasses are offered with three outstanding international guest composers.
  • Module II Theoretical and Practical Training: focussing on the development of competencies which allow the students to discover the professional reality of music in Spain and the international context, as well as subjects which complement training by means of analysis and the creation of inter-disciplinary projects. It covers subjects such as Professional Development, Creation-Interpretation Dialogue, which facilitates the discovery of composers and instruments in real situations; Extended Instrumental Techniques, which connects the students to the new music of the 20th and 21st centuries; and Recording and Post-production Techniques, with real work experience of recording, which means the students can end the Masters with a CD of their own, among others things.
  • Module III Optional: offers subjects which widen the range of knowledge presented in the compulsory modules, shining a spotlight on the artistic and cultural avant-garde and current social problems, placing the creator’s role in context.
  • Module IV Work Experience: provides the chance to appear in public in a variety of contexts and means access to a real professional work situation in which the student will face up to aspects of the production of his or her work.
  • Module V Dissertation: this allows the students to acquire competence appropriate to a Masters Degree, by means of the study of different research methods and techniques for the carrying out of a dissertation. The dissertation is closely related to the student’s musical project as a creator.
METHODOLOGY

Type of Teaching: Classroom-based teaching

Individual and group classes and Composition Workshops.

Ensemble, which includes the première of works created by Masters students.

Group classes such as Recording Techniques, Creation-Interpretation Dialogue, Interdisciplinary Creation Projects, among others, in which students make contact with the current reality of the musician, thus preparing for their future professional life.

External work experience, in different groups, in the form of concerts in music cycles in the Basque Country.

The defence of the Dissertation will be held in public, once the rest of the Masters Degree credits have been passed.

Group classes will be in Spanish and individual classes will be in the preferred language agreed between the teacher and student (Spanish, Basque, English or French).

We recommend a knowledge of English for bibliographic consultations.

The geographical origins of the teaching staff are very diverse and international, so they are bilingual to a large extent.

The school will facilitate the learning of different languages (Spanish, Basque, English, French and German) by means of its linguistic programme.

ACCESS AND ADMISSION

Student selection will be carried out by means of online access tests and through previously sent videotapes.

Registration for access tests:

Registration dates: from 1st to 20th February 2024

Interested persons must complete the registration form and send the following documentation to the Musikene address, or by email to master@musikene.eus:

  1. Photocopy of National Identity Document, residence card, identity card or current passport.
  2. Academic transcript, showing gradings and examinations in all required subjects to access official Masters studies.
  3. Curriculum Vitae
  4. Letter of motivation for taking this Masters and other merits which the candidate wishes to contribute.
  5. The sending of a portfolio of scores and audio and/or video recordings of the works, containing at least 3 different compositions with a total duration of at least 20 minutes, with or without electro-acoustics and/or audiovisuals. If the proposal involves additional texts, they must be submitted in one of the following languages: Basque, Spanish, French, English or Italian.
  6. Signed declaration of authorship of the works and/or recordings presented.
Access tests:

Dates: 5th and 6th March, 2024

Structure of the test:

  1. Exposition of the presented material, consisting of at least three works of different formats, with or without electroacoustic or audiovisual means, during at least 20 minutes. The exposition will be videotaped and sent to Musikene following the instructions the candidates will receive once they have been admitted for the tests.
  1. Personal interview. The candidates admitted for the tests will answer to the questions received several days before the date of the test. The answers will be videotaped and sent to Musikene following the instructions received for such purpose.

Grading: Test 1: 65% / Test 2: 35%

The jury will be made up of three teachers from the school who are specialists in the discipline which is the object of the examination, and they will evaluate the artistic and technical skills of the candidates, their composition project and their communication skills and their degree of motivation to carry out the Masters.

Publication of results: 20th – 25th March, 2024

Access requirements

To be in possession of an official qualification in higher arts education, an official qualification or graduate degree or its equivalent from an institution of the European Higher Education Area or to finish the studies of the aforementioned qualification during the 2023/2024 academic year.

Likewise, students may also access the course with qualifications from educational systems outside the European Higher Education prior checking by the competent educational administration that they show an equivalent level of training.

Presentation of the qualification (or the receipt for payment of the rights to it) will be required upon enrolment. Those students who are currently undertaking the final year may submit this documentation at the end of it. In the latter case, such documentation should be submitted by October 15th, 2024

Teaching Staff
Compulsory subjects

Composition I: Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramón Lazkano, Guest teachers*

Composition II: Gabriel Erkoreka, Zuriñe Fernández Guerenabarrena, Ramón Lazkano, Stefano Scarani, Guest teachers*

*Guest teachers 2023-2024:

Patricia Alessandrini

Vito Zuraj

George Benjamin

Ensemble I, II y III: Ramón Lazkano

Composition with electro-acoustic and audiovisual media: Zuriñe Fernández Guerenabarrena, Stefano Scarani

Professional Development: Mª José Cano, Juan Solaguren; Guest teachers

Creation-interpretation dialogue: Jesús Echeverría, Instrument and composition teachers

Interdisciplinary creation projects: Mª Eugenia Luc

Recording and post-production techniques: Juanan Ros

Extended instrumental techniques: Ramón Lazkano

 

Work experience

External project: Ramón Lazkano. Resident ensemble 2023-24: Ensemble Ascolta

 

Dissertation

Methodology of research: Itziar Larrinaga, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez

Dissertation:

Optional subjects

Art and society: Itziar Larrinaga, Stefano Scarani

Inter-cultural dialogue and new audiences: Ana García Urcola, Elix Etxebeste, Gotzone Higuera

Creative and aesthetic thought of the 20th and 21st centuries; Elix Etxebeste

Enrolment and scholarships
Registration

The Masters Degree can be carried out in two years full-time, with matriculation of 60 ECTS per academic year, or part-time in three years, with a minimum matriculation of 45 ECTS in the first academic year. Each year, the matriculated credits during that academic year are paid.

Complete matriculation per academic year (60 ECTS): 5820 euros.

Payment will be made in 3 instalments:

  • a third at matriculation
  • the remaining amount in two halves, one in November and the other in February.

If you are a qualified ex-student of Musikene, you will enjoy a 15% discount on the price of matriculation.

Grants
General grants:
  • Basque Government grants: Students resident in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country can gain access to the grants the Basque Government gives annually to carry out university studies and other higher studies. http://www.hezkuntza.ejgv.euskadi.eus
  • Ministry of Education grants: Students residing outside the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country can gain access to general grants for those students carrying out post-compulsory education given annually by the Ministry of Education. www.mecd.gob.es
REGULATIONS
  • The Royal Decree 1614/2009, of 26 October, establishes the regulation of higher artistic studies regulated by Organic Law 2/2006. Article 7 of this Royal Decree authorises higher artistic education centres to offer masters degrees.
  • Homologation of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.
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