Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover

It's possible to study the Master's degree course in conducting Children's and Youth Choirs as a part-time course.

The duration of study will be eight semesters in that case.

Course leading to the degree of Master of Music
Regular course duration: 4 semesters

From an artistic and methodological point of view, children’s and youth choirs are not simply adult choirs in miniature. They are ensembles with high aspirations of their own, the conducting of which demands a high degree of professionalism, in order to ensure the necessary long-term application to the tasks, such as enabling a wide range of participants to make music, fostering high artistic aspirations and bearing responsibility for the development of young people. The special profile of the Master’s degree course in “Conducting children’s and youth choirs” at the HMTMH fulfils this aspiration to apply professional expertise in this area of musical activity. Accordingly, the course  focuses on the physiological issues for children’s and young people’s voices, the need to take these into consideration, to acquire and deepen aural abilities in vocal diagnostics, to identify vocal problems aurally and to develop individual practice material to bring about improvement.

1. Course content and objectives
   • Piano playing / Score reading for practical ensemble work
   • Voice
   • Choir conducting
   • Orchestral conducting
   • History and analysis of style
   • Repertoire study
   • Vocal diagnostics through practical aural skills
   • Voice physiology/ Voice hygiene
   • Educational theory and methodology of voice training
   • Educational theory and methodology of directing a children’s choir
   • Sight reading / Tonic sol-fa
   • Ensemble work
   • Media
   • Communication competence
   • Developmental psychology
   • Sociology
   • Self-management
   • Law and marketing
2. Tuition – practically orientated and on a high artistic level
   Choir conducting, Voice and Educational theory and methodology for both these areas are complementary in seminars, practical exercises and project work throughout the four semesters.
   In the fourth semester, the focus of training is on rehearsal and performance projects which are carried out independently in preparation for the Master's degree thesis.
   Essential requirements are experience in dealing with children and young people aged 6 and upwards, both in musical matters and on a personal level. Contacts with professional practitioners working with children’s church choirs, choir classes at primary and secondary schools and singing classes and instrumental ensembles at Music School Hannover offer diverse practical opportunities for acquiring basic training.
   The links between this course and the choir and singing school of Hannover Girls’ Choir with its four-stage system of training from the age of six up to entering university or the beginning of a professional career enables students to undergo practical training at a high level of artistic performance.
3. Who is the course aimed at?
   The target group consists of graduates of Bachelor’s or "Diplom" degree courses in musical performance with content relevant to choir conducting who are interested in deepening and broadening their previous studies and their professional profiles in the direction of conducting children’s and youth choirs. At the admission examination, applicants must display above-average abilities in conducting, singing and piano playing for choir purposes.
   The following graduates and professional practitioners fulfill the requirements for admission to the Master’s degree course, and so can use it to broaden their professional competence: music teachers, choir conductors, church musicians with a degree in music, graduates of the Bachelor’s degree courses in Church Music, Elementary Music Education, Music Education and Voice Teaching and of the Joint Bachelor’s degree course with the Leibniz University Hannover.
4. Career outlook
   Graduates of this course will be competent choir directors and conductors in the field of children’s and youth choirs, i.e. they have comprehensive artistic and academic knowledge concerning the vocal development of children up to professional voice training and are masters of the practice of choral conducting, all the way from careful and highly competent grassroots work up to the interpretation of choral works from every stylistic period on a high artistic level.
    

Institute/Faculty
The course Conducting Children’s and Youth Choirs is run in close collaboration with the Music Education, Voice and Choir and Ensemble Conducting faculties. Accompanying the course there is a research project on voice training with children.
The musicological and music education facilities of the HMTMH are celebrated throughout Germany and internationally for their research and their professional diversity. All those who study in Hannover can profit from these strengths in the fields of performance, education and musicology, drawing support from them for their own professional work, whether at grassroots level or at the peak of musical mastery.