The Conservatorium van Amsterdam’s Early Music Department ensures students attain an excellent level of musicianship based on thorough historical research and knowledge. An international team of leading teachers instructs students in the historical performance of music from the Renaissance to early Romanticism.

The Early Music Department regularly organizes masterclasses, lectures, workshops and projects which are accessible and beneficial to all CvA students.

The programmes of the Early Music Department at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam serve a dual purpose:

1. Full-time education is offered on historical instruments or copies.
2. Additional courses are offered for students on modern instruments who want an introduction to performing Early Music repertoire

All principal subjects, with the exception of clavichord and basso continuo, may be pursued as a complete four-year bachelor’s programme, or as a postgraduate study – as a specialization following a general classical principal study, for example.

Basso continuo and clavichord may be studied as a bachelor principal subject in the third and fourth year assuming that the student finished a keyboard study or has attained accomplishments equivalent to the bachelor degree. 

For more information please contact Acting Head of Early Music, Kees Koelmans.