Recorder

The first thing the recorder generally brings to mind is its role in preliminary music education. However, over the past forty years, a widespread interest in early music and new developments in contemporary repertoire have created a completely new dimension for the instrument. It is chiefly these aspects of the recorder repertoire that have attracted a great deal of attention on international concert podia. Together with renewed educational possibilities for the instrument, these aspects pose a challenge to up and coming recorder players. Since a great deal of focus is placed on the in-depth study of contemporary literature in addition to the exploration of early music repertoire, considerable flexibility and resourcefulness are demanded of the recorder player.

Teachers

Jorge Isaac section representative & principal subject
Erik Bosgraaf regular guest teacher
Maria Martinez Ayerza historical development

If your love of the instrument is so intense that you have decided to enrol in a professional educational or performance programme, its generally lacklustre image will be irrelevant to you. You have decided to push your boundaries and you believe in the future of the recorder. If you want to take on that challenge, enrolling in or completing a study programme at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam may well be the right decision for you.

The Block System: guarantee for an all-round study
The ‘BLOK’ (block), founded in the nineteen seventies by Walter van Hauwe and Kees Boeke, exerted an immediate appeal on recorder students everywhere and has meanwhile established a firm reputation among recorder players both in the Netherlands and abroad. Jorge Isaac and Erik Bosgraaf, the Conservatorium’s two recorder teachers, have put together a unique and wide-ranging teaching programme that makes for a thorough, all-round study of the instrument.

Recorder students and alumni play in The Royal Wind Music.

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
In addition to a clear affinity with the instrument, the applicant is expected to show a profound general knowledge concerning the recorder's literature. The applicant must provide a short and varied programme of approximately 20 minutes from which the jury, in consultation with the candidate, will choose fragments. Certain skill in playing from memory and 'sight reading' is also requested.

Examples

16th and 17th century

ricercare from Giovanni Bassano or Aurelio Virgiliano
diminutions upon a chanson by Girolamo Dalla Casa or Francesco Rogniono
suite by Matthew Locke

18th century

fantasia
prelude
concerto (from memory)
triosonate

Contemporary
a composition by Ryōhei Hirose, Isang Yun, Makoto Shinohara, Guus Janssen, Roderik de Man

After the two-year course, students will be ready to enter the professional music world at the highest level.

Audition
The candidate will perform a programme which may not exceed 30 minutes. He/she is required to play at least one piece from memory. This programme will include a variety of musical styles and must reflect the candidate's specific, distinctive features. Programme guidelines and requirements may be obtained from the section representative.

Individual presence and distinctive qualities as a soloist are the main factors used to determine whether a candidate is admitted to the master's degree programme. An original and well-thought-out programme in which extremes need not be avoided will attest to the candidate's unequivocal artistic merit. Additionally, the student must also demonstrate his/her far-reaching insights into planning, organizing and developing workshops, courses and projects, all of which meet international standards.