Geneva University of Music

The HEM is a public institution founded in 2009, but the school has its origin back to 1835. It is affiliated to the Music & Performing Arts Faculty of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale, HES-SO).
Its Bachelor and Master courses are fully recognized by the Swiss authorities. They are compatible with the European educative space, and well recognized abroad.
The mission of the HEM includes education at the Bachelor and Master level, artistic research, lifelong learning for professional musicians, and artistic productions.
The HEM extends its activities to a branch in Neuchâtel.

Since 2022 Beatrice Zawodnik is the Director of the institution.[1]

The HEM stems from the Geneva Music Conservatory (French: Conservatoire de Musique de Genève) founded 1835 by François Bartholoni (1796-1881).
The Music & Movement Department stems from the Institute founded in 1915 by the musician and educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.
The Conservatoire de musique de Genève was one of the first founded in Europe. Many great artists taught there, such as

• Franz Liszt
• Ernest Bloch
• Ernest Ansermet
• Dinu Lipatti
• Nikita Magaloff
• Marcel Moyse
• Joseph Szigeti
• José Vianna da Motta

The HEM is situated in a building in Place Neuve erected in 1855 by the Parisian architect Jean-Baptiste Lesueur.
Inside the Conservatory was founded in 1939 the Geneva International Music Competition Concours international d'exécution musicale de Genève.
The Early Music Department of the HEM stems from the Centre the musique ancienne, founded 1975 by the Conservatoire populaire de musique de Genève.
The HEM was affiliated as a Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences in 2002.

The HEM covers all musical styles, from the Middle-Age to the Contemporary Music.
It hosts six Departments, covering all musical professions.

• Keyboard Department
• Orchestra Department
• Vocal Department
• Early Music Department
• Music and Movement Department
• Composition & Theory Department

La HEM maintains a symphonic orchestra, several chamber orchestras, a baroque orchestra, a choir, a chamber choir, a contemporary ensemble.
It offers annually more than 500 performances : concerts, solo or ensemble recitals.

The courses are articulated in two cycles : a three years Bachelor of Arts followed by a two years Master of Arts.
Numerous Majors and Minors are available inside the six courses :

• BA in Music
• BA in Music & Movement.
• MA in Music Pedagogy.
• MA in Music Performance.
• MA in specialized Music Performance
• MA in Music Composition & Theory
• MA in Ethnomusicology (in partnership with the University of Geneva and the University of Neuchâtel)

The HEM is well connected to the Universities and artistic production environment in Geneva. Its collaborates closely with following partners :

• University of Geneva (exchange of teaching with the Musicology department, BA in Music & Musicology, MA in Ethnomusicology, Social and Cultural services.
• University of Neuchâtel (MA in Ethnomusicology)
• Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
• Orchestre de chambre de Genève
• Ensemble de musique contemporaine Contrechamps (orchestra internships).
• Grand Théâtre de Genève
• Geneva International Music Competition
• Kunitachi College of Music

The HEM est an active member of the Association Européenne des Conservatoires et Musikhochschulen and maintains close cooperation with numerous Institutions in Switzerland and abroad.
The school is member of the Erasmus exchange program, and collaborates with sister institutions around the world, namely in United States, Canada, Venezuela, Brasil, India and China.

1. Bochet, Henri : Le Conservatoire de musique de Genève: son histoire de 1835 à 1935. Genève, [s.n.], 1935.
2. Jeandin, Richard : Le Conservatoire de musique de Genève : 1935-1960. Genève, [s.n.], [s.d.].
3. Jeandin, Richard Anthelme : Le Conservatoire de musique de Genève : 1960-1985. Genève, Conservatoire de musique, 1985.
4. Campos, Rémy : Instituer la musique : les premières années du Conservatoire de Musique de Genève : (1835-1859). Genève : Éd. Université-Conservatoire de musique, 2003.

• Site of the HEM

46°12′04″N 6°08′34″E