Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre begins the academic year of 2019/2020 on August 26.

The Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre's Great hall, 10.00 – Annual staff meeting

EAMT's Chamber hall, 12.00 – Academic year opening ceremony for students.

The opening ceremony is followed by the lecture "University studies and professional field". The lecture is designed for first year Bachelor's and Master's students.

The official admission period for Bachelor's, Master's and doctoral studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre concluded on July 1st. EAMT received 375 applications out of which 228 student candidates were admitted.

In Bachelor’s studies, 167 applications were submitted, 48 of which for the curricula in English. EAMT admitted 103, 80 for the Estonian and 23 for English curricula.

In Master’s studies, EAMT received 182 applications, 99 of which for the curricula in English. EAMT admitted 117 candidates, 65 for the Estonian and 52 for the English curricula.

In doctoral studies, 26 applications were received, 13 of them by foreign candidates. EAMT accepted 8.

Margus Pärtlas, Vice Rector for Academic Affairs and Research explained: „The most popular fields of study were classical singing, composition, electronic music, sound engineering, string instruments, dramatic art and pedagogy. The interest of the foreign students towards EAMT continues to be high, especially on the Master’s level. On the other hand, we are proud to note that the number of Estonian admitted candidates on the Bachelor’s level was higher than in 2018.“

Admission to the new international Master's programme called Conteporary Physical Performance Making was successful gaining 36 applicants. The first Master's course of it's kind in the performative arts field, CPPM takes postgraduate education out of the classroom and puts practical experience with world-leading makers of performance at the heart of the learning process. The students work alongside some of the most exciting directors, choreographers, performance artists and performers to further one's own creative practice through active collaboration, devising and performance.

As for the the new foreign students, the geographic variety of the sending countries is wide, ranging from Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan to the new world (Australia, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico) and Europe: Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania,  Austria, Croatia, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus and Russia.

A new concert series „Crossing Cultures“, focusing on the foreign students of EAMT, was kicked off last Sunday. Each concert in the series will be devoted to one country and its students studying at EAMT, who will perform alongside the Estonian students.

„Our foreign students come from many different countries and the main idea of the new series is to dedicate each concert to one of those countries. Enabling the foreign students to perform together with their Estonian colleagues, we enable an exchange not only in a form of musical collaboration, but in terms of a cultural exchange in a wider sense. Namely, each concert will include also an oral introduction to the culture of the country in the spotlight“, explains Henry-David Varema, Vice-Rector for Artistic Affairs and International Relations. For instance, in the first concert that was dedicated to South-Korea and featured performances by South-Korean and Estonian students, and alumni of EAMT, the overview on the country’s culture was given by Jason Mario Dydynski, doctoral student of semiotics and cultural theories of University of Tartu.

The countries featured during the next season are Finland, Latvia, Spain and China. „It’s quite common not to know too much about the cultural heritage and background of our foreign colleagues. Thus, the new concert series will hopefully not only help to bring closer the students, academic staff and audience of EAMT, but perhaps also helps to disprove different and unfortunately still widespread myths regarding the foreign students,“ Varema adds.

The registry for the international musicology conference "Urban and Court Culture in the Early Modern Baltic Sea Region" which will take place from 2 to 3 May 2019 is still open!

The conference aims to explore urban and court culture, along with their interrelations in the Baltic Sea region in the early modern period. The programme covers diverse aspects of music and written culture, and further seeks to place individual perspectives in the related contexts (e.g. the social position of a person in the service of a city or within a court; the artistic and personal decisions one had to make; daily life and environment of a person).

The keynote speaker of the conference is renowned German researcher of the early opera, Silke Leopold, who will deliver her speech "Opera in Europe around 1680: A Panorama of Dramaturgies, Languages and Styles" on 2 May at 10.15. Among the others, the presentation "Unbekannte Spuren von Johann Valentin Meders Notensammlung" by the Director of the Leipzig Bach Archive, Peter Wollny, deserves a special mention. You can read more on the conference here and get acquainted with the full programme here. The presentations are held in German and English.

The conference is above all meant for the PhD students of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, University of Tartu, Tallinn University and Estonian Academy of Arts, but all the other professionals from the field of musicology are welcome, too. Participation for everyone is free of charge and you can register by 24 April latest here.

The conference is organized by the Musicology Study Area of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in collaboration with the Estonian Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts.