Accordion
The accordion is an extremely versatile instrument, which has found many different places in today’s concert practice. Be it solo or chamber music from transcriptions of Renaissance, Baroque and Classical music, or original contemporary, avant-garde, experimental or electronic music compositions - some of the most important composers of the 20th and 21st century have written and are writing for the instrument. But the accordion obviously also has its steady place in a lot of orchestra music, soloistically or as part of the ensemble. Additionally, the instrument is very much in in demand in interdisciplinary projects in the field of theatre or dance - and one should not forget the accordion’s role in all kinds of folky contexts or tango, jazz or chanson - You just name it… the accordion is everywhere!
Teachers
Marko Kassl principal subject
As it is still a very young instrument, the main original music for the accordion is composed in a contemporary idiom - the accordion department of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam focuses strongly on this. But transcriptions also are an essential element of the repertoire and there is a big focus on chamber music with a lot of different instrument combinations. There is a fruitful collaboration with other departments at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam- such as projects with the composition, opera, electronic music, early music and jazz departments.
Admission requirements
Audition candidates will be selected on the basis of a video recording to be submitted digitally via the application form. Recordings must be received by February 1st at the latest. The video repertoire consists of a diverse selection from the required audition repertoire of maximum 15 minutes.
Audition repertoire
The candidate prepares a programme of approximately 15 minutes with works from different style periods, which show different sides of the player. The programme must include a polyphonic work from the Baroque repertoire, at least one contemporary work originally written for accordion and a virtuoso piece, which may be an original work or transcription.
Suggestions for pieces:
Baroque
Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas
Johann Sebastian Bach - English suites, French suites, Wohltemperiertes Klavier
Jean Philippe Rameau - Pièces de clavecin
Contemporary
a piece of the original accordion repertoire (f.e. Toshio Hosokawa - Melodia; Torbjörn Lundquist - Partita piccola, or a work of similar standard)
Virtuosic
a virtuosic piece, original or transcription (f.e. Petri Makkonen - Flight Beyond the Time; Carl Maria von Weber - Rondo brillante, or a work of similar level)
Add a repertoire list of the works you've played in the past two years.
Information on the master's degree programme will be published here soon.
Admission requirements
Audition candidates will be selected on the basis of a video recording to be submitted digitally via the application form. Recordings must be received by February 1st at the latest. The video repertoire consists of a diverse selection from the required audition repertoire of maximum 15 minutes.
Audition repertoire
The candidate prepares a programme of approximately 25 minutes with works from different style periods. The candidate demonstrates a high level of artistic and technical ability. Furthermore, it is assumed that the candidate has knowledge of performance practice in respect of the different musical styles.
The programme should include a polyphonic work from the Baroque repertoire, at least two contemporary works originally written for accordion and a virtuoso piece, which may be an original work or transcription. Add a repertoire list of the works you've played over the past four years in both solo and chamber repertoire. Also add your motivation of what you would like to focus on in the master programme.