On 20 December 2013, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) announced that 37 teachers will be conducting doctoral research funded by a Doctoral Scholarship. Using this scholarship, teachers are enabled, in addition to their educational activities, to conduct research leading to…

On April 19th, well-known Indian singer and scholar Sumithra Vasudev will give a unique lecture and singing performance at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Antiquities Museum) in Leiden.

The Dutch Student Orchestra (NSO) brings together more than a hundred of the best student musicians in the Netherlands. On 16 February the NSO will be performing in Leiden. Two Leiden members of the orchestra give a foretaste of the concert.

How are you doing in these strange and unprecedented times? That is the question we are asking our colleagues in this series. Rosalinde Spitters, for instance, skills lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

In the interview by Manu Sinjan, published in Eos Memo, Hafez Ismaili m'Hamdi addresses questions about the changing role of music in society through history, which is also the topic of his course 'From Plato to Pussy Riot'.

Connect art and academia at ACPA

What kinds of vocal music were not typically transmitted in written musical notation? Can specific ‘lost’ song forms - siciliane, giustiniane, le Grechesche, gli stili “regionali“ nel canto del quattrocento - be more precisely identified than they have been until now, both in musicological research…

Shafa’Atussara Silahudin defended her theses on 18 May 2021.

This dissertation aims to establish a dialogue between ethnomusicology (more specifically indigenous organology), the anthropology of art and the culture of the Apinaye peoples, in order to understand how the musical objects of these peoples are learned and taught, and thus to understand its musical…

Worlds of sound is important for everyone who is interested in listening to music of the 20th century or for anyone involved in studying or performing contemporary music. The central question is how to interpret music in case the performer is not willing to depend on personal taste or conventions.

Sound & Score brings together music expertise from prominent international researchers and performers exploring the intimate relations between sound, score and notation, and the artistic possibilities that this relationship yields for performers, composers and listeners.

Implementation of the new sound synthesis and analysis method in music composition.

PhD defence

Johannes Boer's research intends to question the way explicit knowledge is applied in order to restore and perform music from the past with the intention to get as close as possible to its original meaning.

Below some examples of ACPA projects that have a meaningful impact on arts and society. This page will be refreshed every now and then with other projects that exhibit how arts research bears upon our perception, our understanding, and our relationship to the world and other people.

Knowledge and culture subproject 4:

Jed Wentz is a University Lecturer at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts of the Leiden University. He earned a PhD from the docARTES programme and his doctoral thesis Gesture, Affect and Rhythmic Freedom in the Performance of French Tragic Opera from Lully to Rameau explored how historical…

Why does the textural gap between the music that one can improvise and that which one can practice and learn to play (as in completely written-out music) seem to be bigger in the case of the guitar than, for example, in that of keyboard instruments?

Recently, four books have been published which contain a chapter by ACPA senior researcher, lecturer and PhD-supervisor Dr. Marcel Cobussen.

Indonesian translation of the book Recollecting Resonances from authors Bart Barendregt and Els Bogaerts.

Die Aufführungspraxis italienischer Instrumentalmusik in der Auseinandersetzung mit Vokalmusik und Text: Quellen und moderne Umsetzung

Today’s performances of medieval polyphony have a lot in common with those of other ‘classical’ or ‘early’ music. Ensembles perform pieces written by known or lesser known composers, which the listener can revisit by listening to recordings or reading a score.

My research focusses on site-specific compositional and performance practices of music for organ and electronics and their musical-spatial values.

This dissertation explores various perspectives on the term immersion, and its relation with, and transformation through, a composer’s practice.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Arts and leisure

The new cabinet threatens to cut nearly a billion euros from higher education. This not only endangers academic work, it is a disaster for the Netherlands itself. The proposed penalty on study extensions and other financial measures will heavily impact students and will reduce education accessibility.…

Knowledge and culture subproject 2:

Can we really speak about Jewish musicological, musical thought and what is the essence of this thought?

Imagined Voices deals with a form of composition, music with on-screen text, in which the dynamic between sound, words and visuals is explored.

Arts and leisure

The focus of the research lies in the approach of reducing, denying, or taking away essential elements of music making in order to let the musician become theatrical.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

How would you like to combine your studies at Leiden University with high-level education in the arts? The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts will give you a unique opportunity to develop your academic and artistic talents.

Since 2009, at ACPA, 90 candidates received their PhD in Creative and Performing Arts. On this page you will find an overview of ACPA's alumni.

Sound Arguments is an innovative laboratory-atelier for creative artists and researchers dealing with sound. Presented by the Orpheus Institute, Ghent (BE), and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, University of Leiden (NL), Sound Arguments transcends the boundaries of art school or conservatory,…

Besides teaching BA and MA classes at Leiden University and supervising PhD candidates doing artistic research both in Leiden and Ghent, a third major component of Marcel Cobussen’s activities is (of course) doing research.

What was the stringed instrument known in medieval and early Renaissance Italy as “cetra”?

This research revolves around the philosophical and linguistic elements that naturally belong to the process of learning music scores, including complex contemporary repertoire distinguished by physically decoupled notations or physical polyphonic notations.

Music profession requires strong reflective, collaborative, creative and improvisational skills, yet prevailing one-to-one tuition in conservatoire education focuses mainly on transmission of craft skills. Examining effects of students' collaborative and experiential learning, as in learning labs, creates…

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

LAK courses is part of Leiden University and can be found in the Lipsius building on the Cleveringaplaats. The abbreviation "LAK" stands for Leids Academisch Kunstcentrum (Leiden Academic Art Center)

This thesis focuses on the concepts of freedo and fixity as two central topics of my artistic research. I present, analyze. and contextualize four of my works which have explicit links to fleedom and fixify and which demonstrate the dynamic interrelationship between the two.

Arts and culture, Book launch

His instrument, his technique, his music and his life

Five talks will be given during the Leiden Science Family Day: two children's lectures and three lectures for adults. Will you be there ?

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) provides artistic research and education in the arts.

What was the name, the appearance, development and the playing technique of the cello in the Low Countries between 1600 and 1800 and what music was composed for it?

Memory, Imagination, and Mimetics in Contemporary Composition and Historical Performance

The article 'Co-productive agility and four collaborative pathways to sustainability transformations' is published in Global Environmental Change and accessible via OpenAccess. Professor Anthropology of Sustainability and Livelihood Marja Spierenburg of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development…