About the Department of Music

Short description

ZHdK is Zurich’s music college. It has ties with music colleges in Switzerland and abroad. At the same time, it forms part of an integrated university of the arts, where it not only contributes to the diversity of disciplines on offer but also acquires a special status afforded by that structure: a music college under a common organizational and physical roof encompassing all of the arts is utterly unique. The set-up gives it a striking and attractive outward appeal and continuously stimulates internal debate and scrutiny the meaning and values that drive teaching and research.
Booklet

Booklet

Facts and figures

The Department of Music is the biggest of the five departments at ZHdK. It offers two Bachelor’s and four Master’s degree programmes, a PreCollege Music preparatory course, all manner of different continuing education courses and a doctorate programme in partnership with the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. The department is home to two research institutes (the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology and the Institute for Music Research), a centre of excellence for Music Physiology and a Music Club. Alongside teaching and research, ZHdK Music is extremely active in production, primarily in the greater Zurich area, and hosts over 600 events each year, mainly from the Toni Campus.

An average of around 800 students from over 50 countries are enrolled at ZHdK Music. The department also boasts 350 lecturers and a further 170 members of staff (FTE). Students hoping to study at ZHdK must take artistic admissions examinations and must have achieved top marks (i.e. are subject to the numerus clausus) at school.

The Toni Campus houses many facilities, including: 92 teaching rooms, 67 practice rooms, 49 studios, 40 workshop studios, 9 ballet and dance studios, 5 concert halls, ensemble rooms, rehearsal stages and lecture halls, 4 music and movement rooms and restaurants, 2 sound studios and galleries, a music club with a bar, a computer music and sound technology lab, a cinema, a design museum, a film studio, a device loaning scheme, a media and information centre, an IT shop and service desk, a day care centre, a rooftop terrace, a piano studio and a post office.

Students

Music is not only the largest, but also the most international department at the ZHdK. Our students come from all five continents.

Origin Students Department of Music

Alumni and Alumnae

Ursula Hyazintha Andrej, violoncello
Sebastian Androne-Nakanishi, composition für film, theatre and media
Yulianna Avdeeva, piano
Philippe Bach, conducting
Nik Bärtsch, piano
Ivan Bašić, piano
Belenus Quartett, alumnae Seraina Pfenninger, Anne Battegay, Esther Fritzsche; Jonas Vischi
Beatriz Blanco, violoncello
Wies de Boevé, alumnus, lecturer, double bass
Alexander Boldachev, harp
Holly Hyun Choe, conducting
Melody Chua, transverse flute
Nuno Coelho, conducting
Ruben Drole, baritone/bass
Jakob Eisenbach, composition for film, theatre and media
Galatea Quartet, Sarah Kilchenmann, Yuka Tsuboi, David Schneebeli, Julien Kilchenmann
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, conducting
Stephanie Haensler, composition
Veit Hertenstein, viola
Esther Hoppe, violin
Maximillian Hornung, violoncello
Ikan Hyu, alumnae Anisa Djojoatmodjo, Gitarre; Hannah Bissegger, Gesang
Philippe Jordan, conducting
Mayuko Kamio, violin
Vojin Kocic, guitar
Stefanie Kunckler Ymonos, composition
Patrick Lange, conducting
Delyana Lazarova, conducting
Leo McFall, conducting
Valentine Michaud, saxophone
Huw Morgan, trumpet
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Nadja Räss, vocals
Nadja Reich, violoncello
Andreas Reize, organ
Linus Roth, violin
Mirjam Schnedl (alias Skal), composition for film, theatre and media
Milan Siljanov, vocal studies
Chouchane Siranossian, violin
Maurice Steger, flute
Joanna Thalmann, harp
Yves Theiler, piano
Trio Colores, percussion instruments, Matthias Kessler, Luca Staffelbach, Fabian Ziegler
Trio Rafale, Daniel Meller, Flurin Cuonz, Maki Wiederkehr
Shih-Yu Tang, piano
Yuka Tsuboi, violin
Nil Venditti, conducting
Marena Whitcher, vocals
Sooyoung Yoon, violin

Brief history

1873     Winterthur Music College establishes a music school
1999     Merger to become Zurich University of Music and Theatre (HMT)
2007     Merger to become Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK
2014     ZHdK moves to the Toni Campus