NL
Historical Performance PracticeThe study

Historical Performance Practice

About the study

Study
Bachelor Music
Mode of study
Full-time
Academy
Utrechts Conservatorium
Grade
Bachelor of Music
Duration
4 years
ECTS
240
Type
Bachelor
Language
English|Dutch
Registration-code
34739
Location(s)
Mariaplaats
Email
sz@hku.nl
Phone
+31 (0)30-2091540

Historical Performance Practice in brief

• Study music from a historical perspective
• From the early Middle Ages, through the Renaissance to the Romantic era
• Conduct research to understand how music was performed in a particular time period
• Apply and integrate this research into your own musical practice
• Peer learning is the main focus; you learn through playing together
• Rely on a close-knit, international team of specialists
• Move from your bachelor’s to a master’s at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht
• This is a top-rated programme according to the Dutch study choice guide 'Keuzegids HBO' 2025


When is Historical Performance Practice the perfect choice for you?

An investigative and curious attitude is essential for a student of Historical Performance Practice. You are curious about the origins of a musical piece and what the composer intended when he wrote it. In your investigation, you take into account the political and social environment of the time the work was written, and whether this was done in a secular or religious context. As student, you are studying sources on a daily basis to find out what the music - of which no recordings exist and that were never put to paper via modern music notation – originally sounded like.

Why study Historical Performance Practice at HKU?

Our teaching methods are characterised by being small-scale, enabling us to offer attention to your personal development. We take into account that every student has a different character and learning style. From day one, we focus on your personal desires and development goals and strive to support them in the best possible way. We work both towards generalisation and specialisation; you enhance the skill you already have, yet also focus on skills and knowledge you still need to obtain. You don’t have to do this all on your own: throughout your studies, you receive guidance from the principal teachers and various other teaching staff.

As a Historical Performance Practice student, you are not isolated. You will meet many students from other departments and often perform together with them – both during regular classes as well as project weeks in which you investigate new subjects. For example, many students of Classical and Historical play together in chamber music ensembles. Students from other departments, both from the bachelor’s and master’s programmes, come to Historical Performance Practice to take secondary modules. And the reverse is also possible: as a student of Historical Performance Practice, you are free to take modules at the other departments of Utrechts Conservatorium.

Experience Days

Would you like to find out what it’s like to study Historical Performance Practice? Come and spend a day with us! During an Experience Day, you’ll have the opportunity to attend a 60-minute private lesson with a subject specialist. You can also sit in on three group lessons as an observer.

Practical Information
Experience Days are available on Mondays and Tuesdays from 1 November to 4 June. Would you like to take part? Please send an email with your CV to Ksenija Celner. We will contact you to arrange a suitable date. The cost of a taster day is 80 euros.

Please note: there are no observation days on public holidays or during the following periods:
26 October to 8 November
21 December to 3 January
29 March to 9 April
26 April to 9 May

Please bear in mind that it may take up to two weeks for your application to be processed.
Historical Performance PracticeWhat will you learn
Historical Performance Practice

What will you learn

You will develop into a musician with a broad proficiency of your instrument. Each performance starts with research. You ask questions such as: Which instruments had this composer at their disposal? Which playing techniques did they use in this country and at that time? You find the answers by studying historical sources, such as instruments, methods, letters, manuscripts and treatises. With an inquisitive mindset and guided by your sources, you try to figure out what the origins really express.

While studying, you’ll develop a critical mindset that will enable you to draw conclusions from source research. You’ll gain a lot of new knowledge, leading to new insights. This new knowledge comes in large part from the Historical Documentation and Historical Lab classes. These classes are taught by teachers specialised in specific themes and subjects. You’ll also work on projects and play in ensembles within the historical department.

We’re not afraid to think outside the box. With us, you’ll not only learn to master your instrument in every detail and to think analytically within a historical context – but also, if you wish, to explore how you can apply that knowledge and skills in a different context. That might mean working in another genre or with a different instrument, but it could also involve another stylistic period, discipline, or a focus on creative artistry.

We teach you to perform music like the composer originally intended – but we also teach you to improvise. Within the boundaries of your instrument, the stylistic period, and your knowledge of the composer, you develop your musical art by playing variations, embellishments, and ornamentation.

Exploring and getting your bearings

You’ll take classes in your main subject and do research. You’ll develop a broad set of skills, and learn specific techniques for specific styles.

Connecting with your audience
You’ll also learn how to connect with your audience while performing. You talk about the historical context of a piece, such as what tuning was used for it, and why.


Theory class
In addition to your main subject, you’ll have theoretically oriented classes in subjects such as music theory, sight-reading, harmony and analysis. You’ll explore subjects like tonality, modality, rhythm and instrumentation, and compose your own short passages.

Going into more depth

In the second year you also take a variety of subjects. You also choose a choir to sing in. For example the Baroque-Renaissance Choir.

Lessons in education
You’ll also develop as a teacher. You’ll take methodology classes for your instrument or instrumental family. You’ll also have general classes on teaching, such as didactic methods. How do you structure a class teaching, for example?


Internship
You’ll do an internship with instructors who are professionals working in the field. You’ll be both observing and teaching. You’ll also do an internship working with a group such as a student orchestra.

Carving out a path

Starting in the third year, you and your study coach will take a look at your future.


Coaching
You’ll talk with your study coach about your strengths, and the courses and other activities that fit best with them. You fill your year with extracurricular activities and electives.

Graduating

In your last year, you’ll also have lots of room for extracurricular activities, projects and electives. And of course, for getting ready to graduate.


Final research project
You’ll finish the bachelor’s programme by doing a research project that clearly shows your view on education, based on books, interviews, methods, and other sources.

Subjects you can choose

You choose one of the main subjects. If you’d like to find out more, contact the course leader, Cecile Rongen.

  • Historical violin
    Historical viola
    Historical cello
    Viola da gamba/violone
    Traverso/Historical flutes
    Historical keys
    Recorder

Lecturers

  • Course leader
    Cécile Rongen

    Arranging
    Willem van Merwijk

    Baroque cello and classical cello
    Victor Garcia Garcia

    Baroque violin and baroque viola
    Antoinette Lohmann (core teacher)

    Basso continuo
    Mary Sayre

    Choir direction and choir practicum
    Rob Vermeulen

    Correpetition
    Artem Belogurov
    Jörn Boysen

    Educational subjects
    Heleen Gerretsen (core teacher)

    Historical documentation
    Antoinette Lohmann

    Historical keys
    Artem Belogurov (fortepiano)
    Jörn Boysen (harpsichord and clavichord)
    Christiaan Winter (carillion)

    Historical documentation
    Antoinette Lohmann (principal teacher)

    Historical flutes/traverso
    Doretthe Janssens

    Musician's health
    Criss Taylor

    Musical history
    Arnoud Heerings

    Musical theory
    Duco Burgers
    Arnoud Heerings
    Daan van den Hurk (principal teacher)
    Anne-Maartje Lemereis
    Mark Lippe
    Rens Tienstra

    Orchestra practicum
    Antoinette Lohmann

    Recorder
    Robert de Bree

    Viola da gamba/violone
    Joshua Cheatham

    See the complete list of the educational team of HKU Utrechts Conservatorium

  • Artem Belogurov is equally at home at the modern piano, harpsichord, clavichord and the many varieties of historical pianos. His repertoire ranges through four centuries of solo, concerto and chamber repertoire. Artem’s recent performances include concerto appearances with Concerto Köln in Lincoln Center, New York and at the Library of Congress, Washington as well as with Camerata RCO in Sofia, Bulgaria. As a soloist and chamber musician, duo partner with cellist Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde and founding member of ensemble Postscript, Artem has performed at a number of international festivals, among them Festival Montréal Baroque, Festival Royaumont, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musica Antiqua Brugge, and in such venues as Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, and Tivoli Vredenburg. He is actively interested in research, particularly relating to Romantic performance practice, and enjoys experimenting with and reviving forgotten expressive devices. He has recorded for BIS, Piano Classics, Berlin Classics, Challenge Classics and TRPTK. To learn more about him and his projects, please visit artembelogurovmusic.com, postscriptensemble.com en romanticlab.com.

  • Robert de Bree is at home in many fields, as a teacher, recorder player, oboist, improviser and researcher. In addition to work with top early music ensembles, such as the English Baroque Soloists, Ensemble Pygmalion, L'Arpeggiata, AKAMUS & Academy of Ancient Music, Robert also explores unusual paths with newer ensembles, such as Wigmore Hall “Baroque ensemble in residence” Solomon's Knot (oratorios and cantatas without a conductor, semiscene, by heart), The Scroll Ensemble (full improvised concerts in styles from medieval to modern, with theatrical elements, audience interaction and other art forms) and OHM with its own compositions and arrangements. A creator in his own right, Robert also performs solo performances, such as his “Opera by the Hearth,” where original, 18th-century opera arrangements for block flute solo come together with self-written diary texts based on true-life characters and events, his own compositions and projected paintings from the era. Robert teaches historical improvisation at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and gives workshops in this field throughout Europe. Research in this field also manifests itself in lecturing and publishing articles (Early Music America, ERTA UK, Chigiana Journal International Conference, etc.). On The Scroll Ensemble YouTube channel, Robert makes improvisation accessible to all with tutorials, history and interviews.

  • Victor Garcia Garcia is a Spanish cellist specialized in historical performance. He enjoys a varied and international musical career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Alongside his activities as a performer, his interest towards research led him to persue a doctoral degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, focusing on the performance practice of cellists who were contemporaties of Beethoven. Victor won the Second Prize at the Witold Lutoslawski Cello Competition in Warsaw. As a member of the Duo Auxesis and the ensemble Ayres Extemporae where he plays the violoncello piccolo, he was an award winner at the Händel Competition in Göttingen, the Biagio Marini competition and the SMADE. Victor was also Artist in Residence in Schloss Weissenbrunn in 2022. He regularly performs with European ensembles in the early music scene, such as the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra, Baroque Orchestra of Sevilla, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Dunedin Consort, Millenium Orchestra or Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. He is the artistic director of the Festival Impulso in La Palma (Spain).

  • Doretthe Janssens studied modern flute and traverso at the Utrecht Conservatory, where she is currently principal teacher in historical flutes. She also has a thriving teaching practice at home, with amateur flutists of all ages and from all over the country. Doretthe has written a method for the traverso, which has been published in Dutch, English and German. Doretthe plays regularly in various European orchestras and ensembles and also held a permanent position with the Netherlands Bach Society for many years.

  • Antoinette Lohmann has been active in a variety of musical areas. As a freelance player, Antoinette has performed and recorded with many orchestras and ensembles all over the world. Currently her repertoire extends from the early 17th to the 21st century, always performed from a historically informed perspective. She has a special interest in unusual instruments such as the viola d'amore and the violino piccolo, and their repertoire. She also has a particular fascination with folk elements found in classical music. In recent years Antoinette focused primarily on chamber music, with special emphasis on Dutch repertoire. She has recorded the complete sonatas for piano and violin by Joseph Martin Kraus and Margarethe Danzi, bassoon quartets by Franz Danzi and Krommer, chamber music works by Belle van Zuylen and 17th-century repertoire from the Netherlands. Antoinette teaches baroque violin and viola at Utrechts Conservatorium and Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She regularly teaches as a guest lecturer at conservatories throughout the world.

  • Saxophonist / composer / arranger Willem van Merwijk (Bemmel, The Netherlands, 1960) is a musical jack-of-all-trades. He is co-founder of the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet and played the baritone saxophone in this group from 1982 till 2014. He is also a member of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble since 1990 and regularly performing, composing and arranging for this group. Guillermo Lago (1960) is van Merwijk's composing alter ego. His work is being performed and recorded world-wide. ‘Ciudades’ by his hand for saxophone quartet has become a repertoire piece for the ensemble. He is teaching at both Utrecht Conservatorium and the 'Conservatorium van Amsterdam’.

  • Crissman Taylor has been teaching at the Utrecht Conservatory since 1996 where she runs the Music Mind and Body Program. Previous to her studies at the HKU in voice (bachelors/masters) she studied violin in New York. In between conservatory studies, she gained a bachelor’s in sociology from Harvard University and qualified to teach the Alexander Technique in 1989. She has had a long performance career as classical mezzo-soprano and violinist.

    Her educational development and research focuses interdisciplinary collaborations to enhance the curriculum. This includes work with medical and psychology professionals, the narrative medicine department of Utrecht Medical Center (UMC), and dance and movement research with Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She conducted extensive research into the challenges of violin and viola playing, developing the Violinist in Balance method, which combines Alexander re-education with custom-made chin rest and shoulder rests, using 3-D printing technology. She is a founding member of Artist in Balance, an interdisciplinary performance educational institute.

  • Christiaan Winter (*1967) studied church music, organ, choral conducting and carillon at the various professional music colleges of the HKU. He was a programmer for NCRV radio and church musician of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. Currently he is city carillonneur of Alkmaar, village carillonist of De Rijp, lecturer at the HKU/Netherlands Carillon School, president of Carillon Center of the Netherlands and the Royal Dutch Carillon Society, editor of the Yearbook of Carillon and Bell Culture in the Low Countries and conductor of vocal ensemble Duodektet in Amsterdam. In May 2023, he will receive his doctorate from VU University Amsterdam for a study on the work of church musician and composer Willem Vogel. Christiaan Winter is also a freelance organist, singer and composer.

Historical Performance PracticeWhat will you make
Historical Performance Practice

What you will create in this programme

Off to work

After completing your studies, you are an expert in the field of classical music. You receive a Bachelor of Music degree and can now add the title ‘Bmus’ to your name. With this degree, you can get to work in many different roles and places: In an ensemble or orchestra, or as a soloist, teacher, organiser or musical director. It’s all up to you. As a specialist, your studies will have prepared you for many different roles in the professional field.

Facilities

This music study programme gives you access to state-of-the-art studios and equipment.
WorkspacePerformance & TechnologyWorkspaceLending desksWorkspaceLibraries and Multimedia Libraries
Historical Performance Practice

Latest news

Historical Performance PracticeApplication and admission
Historical Performance Practice

Application and admission

This is the right programme for you if you are passionate about music and musical history. During the selection process, we will assess if you and Historical Performance Practice are indeed a good match.

Important Dates

All the practical entrance exmination will be between 30 March and 9 April 2027 and will take place live at the conservatory.

Can you still apply?

You can apply for the Bachelor of Music Historical Performance Practice course from 1 October 2026 for the academic year 2027-2028. Please keep in mind that applications received after 15 January can only be processed based on availability. It is therefore possible that the course is suddenly full.

Prior Education

You can take the course if you have one of the following diplomas: pre-university (vwo), senior general secondary education (havo), or senior secondary vocational education level 4 mbo or equivalent.

If you do not meet the prior education requirement, you may be able to take an 18+/21+ test. Read more about the 18+/21+ test here.

Experience Day

Would you like to spend a day with the Historical Performance Practice department? You can do so on Mondays and Tuesdays from 20 October to 2 June. During an Experience Day, you can attend a 60-minute private masterclass with a teacher of your choice. You will also have the opportunity to attend three different group lessons as an observer. The cost is €80. Please contact Ksenija Celner for more information about the possibilities.

Entrance Examination

The entrance exam consists of three parts.

  • After you apply via Studielink, you will receive the questionnaire within a few working days.

  • If you live in the Netherlands, the theoretical exam will take place at the location of the Utrechts Conservatorium. If you live outside the Netherlands, your theoretical exam will take place online. The exam will take approximately 30 minutes. It consists of a general music theory test and a listening comprehension test.

    Entrance Requirements (pdf)

    Below you will find examples of the theory exam:
    Example theory test (pdf)
    Answers theory test (pdf)
    Example listening test (pdf)
    Solfège (pdf)

  • The practice admission will be between 30 March and 9 April 2027 and will take place live at the conservatory. For the practical entrance exam, you need to prepare an assignment in advance.

    Below the different assignments per instrument.

    Cello
    Historical Keys
    Oboe
    Recorder
    Traverso
    Viola
    Viola da Gamba
    Violin

Apply via Studielink for the Bachelor of Music. During the application process you can choose your main subject for Historical Performance Practice.

Within the Historical Performance Practice programme, you can also choose to combine two historical keyboard instruments as your main subjects. These are: Carillon, Organ, Harpsichord, or Fortepiano. In Studielink, select the option historical keys.

Admission

The admission consists of uploading a home assigment, a theoretical and practical exam.

The practical entrance exam will be live at the conservatory between 30 March and 9 April 2027. Make sure you're available this period.

After the practical admission you will receive a result/advice from the admission committee. You will receive the official, final result of your entrance exam by e-mail no later than 1 May.

Please note: there can be a difference between the advice and the final result. This is because sometimes more candidates are admissible than can admit.

There are three possible outcomes:

  • You can enrol for the course
  • You can enrol for the preparatory course
  • You have failed the exam

Study Costs

HKU has different rates for tuition fees. Depending on your situation, you pay either statutory or institutional tuition fees.

Calculate your tuition fee
  • The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science anually sets the statutory tuition fees. The statutory rate applies only to students from the Netherlands, another country in the European Economic Area (EEA*), Switzerland or Suriname, and students who meet the nationality criteria of the Dutch Student Finance Act (WSF 2000).

    (* EEA countries comprise the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein).

  • HKU sets the institutional tuition fees on the basis of the statutory rate. Students who have already completed a course in higher education and students from outside the EEA usually pay a higher rate.

    Partly as a result of legal changes, the rate for institutional tuition fees for non-EEA students may rise considerably in the coming years.

  • Read the information on the study costs page.

Find out more?

First, read the frequently asked questions. Haven't found your answer yet? Get in contact with Student Affairs. They will help you with questions about (almost) everything that has to do with studying at HKU.

Contact