The APD merge in a single direction

It is no longer either/or for new students at the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma programme (APD) at Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen. It is both/and when the dividing line between the performative part and the compositional part of their artistic work is blurred out and the two specializations of the study programme merged in one.

RMC's APD programme is a two-year education at the highest artistic level within the field of contemporary music. APD students thus already have a Masters degree in music from a conservatory or a professional career with equivalent qualifications.

From the next academic year, commencing August 2023, the programme will no longer be offered divided into the two specialties 'APD - Instrumental/vocal performance' and 'APD - Composition', but together as 'APD - Contemporary Music'.

"With the reorganization we are strengthening the profile of the APD, so that it will make an even stronger contribution to contemporary music," says Head of Programme Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard.

Exploring the cracks

So far the APD programme has been divided in a continuation of the division at RMC's other study programmes: The starting point at both the basic level Bachelors programmes and at the advanced level Masters programmes is that the students focuses on either the performing or the creative part in their development.

"At the highest artistic level where the APD positions itself it is no longer relevant to maintain the division. Students at this level work in an artistically matured and clarified practice, where they no longer maintain a strong self-identification as either a performing musician or as a composer," says Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard.

An APD education at RMC is anchored in a single project that discusses a series of research questions that the students themselves formulates. The questions act as the prism through which the student performs the artistic work during the programme.

"Regardless of the fact that such projects are an extension of an artistic practice, they must also point to something as yet unknown outside of practice - something that needs to be explored and thus does not benefit from being pre-defined in relation to a specific performative or compositional field. And without the division into specialties, the research questions can unfold in the cracks between the performing and the compositional," explains Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard.

The APD - Contemporary Music is open for application, deadline is 1 December.

RMC hosts online information meetings about the APD programme on 1 November.