The research interests of the academic and teaching staff of the Music, Sound, Performance  MA program stretch from 19^th century virtuosity in opera and concert life to digital sound art. Students will have first-hand contact with the most exciting research in lectures and seminars where instructors will share their most recent findings. This synergy between teaching and research aims at fostering critical thinking and investigating aesthetics of musical performance in multiple cultural, political-economic, geographical, and historical contexts. In addition to sharing their recent research findings, the teaching staff will introduce students to the most current scholarly debates on postcolonialism, media and gender studies, challenging the authority of concepts such as “modernism” or “art music.” This intellectual exercise will serve as an entry point to the analysis of very concrete examples of contemporary musical and cultural practices.

In addition to rethinking the shortcomings of musical modernism, other examples of related interests of the faculty of this MA program are aesthetic values of musical listening, its politics and economies (who is allowed to listen how to what?), as well as the study of music epistemology, its networks and mediality (how knowledge about music is generated, for whom and in which form is it reproduced?).

Being able to think critically about music as a way of challenging (and changing) the world has been proven to be an essential skill in contemporary cultural and artistic institutions. Students interested in critical thinking and its applications will become part of a strong community of students, doctoral students, and instructors working together on exciting and innovative research projects at a leading university that is committed to diversity and inclusion through its research.