nced udies & arch music
advanced
studies & research in music
The Orpheus Institute, founded in 1996 in Ghent, is an international centre of excellence with its primary focus on artistic research in music: “research embedded in musical practice and primarily guided by artistic objectives.” The Orpheus Institute in short: • an international team of senior, doctoral and visiting musicianresearchers • producing and promoting high quality research into music • in a dedicated educational and research environment • generating new knowledge in-and-through musical practice • keeping the artist’s perspective as the starting point for research
about the Orpheus Institute Orpheus Institute hosts the international inter-university docARTES programme for practice-based doctoral study in music, and the Orpheus Research Centre, home to around 25 artist-researchers involved in advanced research. docARTES is a doctoral programme for performers and composers. It offers a unique environment for critical reflection on musical practice. Since 2004, docARTES has nurtured more than 50 gifted performers and composers to become equally talented artistresearchers through intensive advanced training within the Orpheus Institute.
“research embedded in
musical practice
and primarily guided by
artistic objectives.�
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The close link between education and research within our facilities creates an inspiring environment where artists can experiment, exchange ideas and develop new knowledge. Throughout our activities there is a clear focus on the development of a new research discipline in the arts, addressing trending questions and topics at the heart of musical practice. To promote and disseminate this knowledge, the Orpheus Institute organises seminars, study days, workshops and masterclasses and an annual Academy. Next to that, the Orpheus Institute also has its own publication series. All these aspects have made the Orpheus Institute what it is today: a leading European centre for artistic research in music and an influential driving force for new developments in artistic practice, with an impact that is felt worldwide.
Research Fellows
Paulo de Assis Tom Beghin William Brooks Nicolas Collins Lucia D’Errico Jonathan Impett Seth Josel Catherine Laws Juan Parra Cancino Luk Vaes
who is who people
Researchers
at the Orpheus Institute
Nicholas Brown Robert Giglio Paolo Giudici David Gorton Chris Maene Tiziano Manca Stefan Östersjö Michael Pecak Godfried-Willem Raes Tilman Skowroneck Eleanor Smith Simon Waters Matt Wright Thomas Wulfrank
Research Advisory
Associate
Council
Jo Bury chair
Corina Caduff Andreas De Leenheer Dame Janet Ritterman
Doctoral
Researchers
Heloisa Amaral Prach Boondiskulchok Daniela Fantechi Ellie Nimeroski & 46 docARTES students
involved in various research projects and collaborations
Editorial
Staff
Board
Peter Dejans director
William Brooks chair
Paulo de Assis Kathleen Coessens Edward Crooks Peter Dejans Helena De Preester Jonathan Impett Michael Schwab Heike Vermeire
Jonathan Impett director of research
Luk Vaes
docARTES coordinator
Heike Vermeire office manager
Kathleen Snyers project manager
Daphne Ronse
communication & digital media coordinator
Research Steering Committee
Jonathan Impett chair
Paulo de Assis Tom Beghin Peter Dejans Luk Vaes
An up-to-date list can be found at www.orpheusinstituut.be
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The Orpheus Research Centre was launched in 2007. Its mission is to produce and promote the highest quality research into music, the processes of music making, and our understanding of them.
Throughout the research centre’s activities there is a clear focus on the development of a new research discipline in the arts: one that addresses questions and topics at the heart of the artist’s musical practice. The Orpheus Research Centre is the first of its kind to focus its research through the perspectives of the artist-researcher. The research builds on the unique expertise and insights of musicians and is constantly dialoguing with other disciplines. It aims to serve as a magnet for artists who cannot avoid being researchers. Based in Flanders, but international in its scope, Orpheus Institute and its research centre aim to serve as a ‘node’ through which new research findings can be shared. Through its institutional partners and contacts, and via the dissemination activities of its researchers both within and outside the Orpheus Institute, the centre provides a means of transferring knowledge efficiently from the world of research to that of musical practice and artistic education – and vice versa.
research centre
expertise
insights dialogues
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Orpheus researchers as a close-knit
community
research clusters Declassifying the Classics Rhetoric, Technology and Performance (1770-1830) Tom Beghin (Principal Investigator), Prach Boondiskulchok, Robert Giglio, Chris Maene, Ellie Nimeroski, Michael Pecak, Tilman Skowroneck, Eleanor Smith, and Thomas Wulfrank Conscious of a long rhetorical tradition in the arts (from the 18th century) and mindful of newly developing interactions of man and machine (into the 19th century), this research cluster engages in idiosyncratic and thick readings of musical scores by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and contemporaries— especially those involving the keyboard or piano in its various technological guises.
MusicExperimentX Transdisciplinary Encounters In and Beyond Music (Starting February 2018) Paulo de Assis (Principal Investigator), Lucia D’Errico and Paolo Giudici MusicExperimentX: Transdisciplinary Encounters in and Beyond Music is a research project in the field of creative music performance. In it, performance is regarded as an independent form of art: independent from works of music, from concepts and practices of musical interpretation, and from authoritative texts, instruments, and traditions. The project aims at reconfiguring musical practices, most prominently at merging the roles of composer, instrumentalist, and performer into one figure: the operator, a multitasking inventive person, intertwining, fabricating and “machining” unexpected connections between heterogeneous musical, artistic, and conceptual materials. The project challenges dominant modes of thinking about music, while offering concrete tools, methodologies and strategies for the making of imaginative music performances.
MTT Music, Thought and Technology Jonathan Impett (Principal Investigator), Juan Parra Cancino, Nicolas Collins, Matt Wright, Simon Waters and Nicholas Brown The research cluster Music, Thought and Technology posits a fundamental relationship between these three aspects of human behaviour. We explore the hypothesis that at any given cultural moment, models derived from the science and technology of that time play an important role in the imagining and understanding of music. Taking its cue from recent research in technology theory, in new media and digital culture, MTT proposes a radical reorientation of the space and terms in which we think about music, exploring these ideas through creative projects.
HIPEX Historical(ly Informed) Performance Practices of Experimental Music Luk Vaes (Principal Investigator), William Brooks, Godfried-Willem Raes and Seth Josel The HIPEX project traces, reconstructs, and documents histo-rical practices in the performance of experimental post-WWII compositions, deepening our understanding of the role of the performer in composing and performing new experimental repertoire.
Performance, Subjectivity and Experimentation Catherine Laws (Principal Investigator), William Brooks, Stefan Östersjö, David Gorton and Nguyễn Thanh Thủy The research cluster addresses the question of subjectivity by means of four discrete but closely interlinked sub-projects, each of which takes an experimental and exploratory approach to the process of performancemaking, examining how subjectivity is produced through this process; how expressive strategies are formed through the creative process of developing and/or practising musical materials.
research clusters
12 / 13 More detailed info on the research clusters and topics can be found on the website: www.orpheusinstituut.be
Laureate programme
docARTES
The laureate programme allows young musicians to conduct artistic research into subjects related to their professional activities, artistic choices and personal background. Within a flexible framework students individually develop a research project on a relatively short term basis, supervised by a mentor.
docARTES is an international interuniversity doctoral programme for practice-based research in musical arts, designed for musician-researchers.
At the end of the programme, the student presents research findings in a final lecture-performance. If this presentation is successful, the student is granted the title of ‘Laureate of the Orpheus Institute’.
education professional
artistic personal
More than just stimulating and facilitating artist-researchers, docARTES provides a 4-year doctoral curriculum, consisting of research and training. It allows doctoral students to develop their artistic qualities, broaden their academic knowledge and expand their methodological skills. This curriculum is supplemented by individual research supervision. docARTES is also integrated in a professional artistic research biotope, preparing doctoral students for a professional career as artistic researcher. The docARTES curriculum is run at Orpheus Institute in Ghent, together with Flemish and Dutch partner institutes since January 2004. There are currently about 40 doctoral students with very diverse backgrounds involved in practice-based research projects in the docARTES programme. More than 25 PhD graduates have completed their research culminating in artistic presentations and a public defence of their thesis. www.docartes.be
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publications The Orpheus Institute regularly issues new publications to present and share research findings and to pass on the benefits to other researchers, professional practitioners and the wider community. Research and artistic realisations (performances, compositions, etc.) can be presented in digital media as well as printed texts. All the publications are available through Leuven University Press. They meet high international scientific standards and hold the GPRC-label. GPRC stands for ‘Guaranteed Peer Reviewed Content’: it is a quality label issued by the Flemish Publishers Association (VUV) to indicate that a publication has been subjected to an extensive peer review process that complies with international scientific standards.
Recent publications in the Orpheus Institute Series, published by Leuven University Press The Dark Precursor: Deleuze and Artistic Research (Paulo de Assis & Paolo Giudici, eds.) 2017 Artistic Research in Music: Discipline and Resistance (Jonathan Impett, ed.), 2017 Experimental Encounters in Music and Beyond (Kathleen Coessens, ed.), 2017 Experimental Affinities in Music (Paulo de Assis, ed.), 2015
More information about previous publication series and other (web)publications on www.orpheusinstituut.be/en/ publications
library The Orpheus Institute keeps its own specialized and disciplinespecific library which favours works in music-theoretical, aesthetic, performance-oriented and (artistic) philosophical areas. The library catalogue currently contains about 4.500 books, scores and CDs. The Orpheus library collection contains publications on themes as musical practice, execution of music, creativity, experiment, philosophy and aesthetics. The library also houses a collection of specialised journals, CD’s and scores. And of course, all publications of the Orpheus Institute, its researchers and graduate students are kept in the collection. The library also has two special collections: Fonds Johan Huys and Fonds Gerard Corver.
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events The Orpheus Institute hosts several events in Ghent such as conferences, study days, concerts and workshops. Most events have free admission, but online registration is always required. More info and a full calendar of all upcoming events can be found at: www.orpheusinstituut.be/en/events
recordings
concerts conferences
study days workshops
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Photos
Gilles Anquez (p. 2, 4) Dieter Debruyne (p. 5, 18) Lieven De Laet (p. 8, 9, 10) Jessica Kelly (p. 17) Jan Schacher (p. 2) Jonas Tavernier (p. 7, 13) Heike Vermeire (p. 14)
Coordination Daphne Ronse
Design
www.jimmylee.be
Publication February 2018
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Orpheus Instituut Korte Meer 12 9000 Ghent (Belgium) +32 (0)9 330 40 81 www.orpheusinstituut.be
advanced
studies & research
in music