Lectorates

At the Royal Conservatoire, we attach great importance to developing and carrying out practice based research. The lectorates play a crucial role in this. The lectors take a leading role in developing research projects together with students, teachers and external partners. Relevance to the professional practice as well as the constant improvement of the quality of musical training programmes within and outside the conservatoire are always at the core of these projects.

Lectorate ´Music, Education and Society´
The lectorate 'Music, Education and Society' is led by Paul Craenen and focuses on the changing role and meaning of musical expertise in contemporary culture and society, and on the consequences of these changes for the curriculum of higher music education.

Our relation with music is constantly changing under the influence of developments in media, technology, society and changing cultural values. Traditional concert formats are struggling and support for the Western musical canon has diminished considerably. At the same time, new insights are growing into the potential of music and sound experience in various social contexts, in education and in the public space. In the arts, we see an increasing mobility between genres, disciplines and knowledge domains. Successful musicians often follow unique, self-made career paths. The professional perspective of young musicians in training is therefore both more uncertain and broader. The playing field has expanded from the concert hall to the city, the public and the virtual space. These new environments and motivations require higher music education to rethink notions of professional expertise, artistic quality, and the possible role and responsibility of musicians in society.

The lectorate investigates contemporary musicianship via artistic and practice-based research. Relevant results and insights are implemented in curriculum development at the Royal Conservatoire and shared internationally through symposia, conferences and publications.

Click here for an overview of research projects from the period 2017-2021, and click here for an overview of research projects from 2022.

Meetings research group
The research group of the lectorate 'Music, Education & Society' meets each month on a Thursday evening. During these meetings, members of the reseach group give presentations about the progress of their research and related topics. If you would like to attend a meeting, please contact Roos Leeflang (r.leeflang@koncon.nl).

Lectorate 'Research in the Arts'
The lectorate 'Research in the Arts', led by lector Henk Borgdorff, worked in close collaboration with the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) at Leiden University. Its focus was on strengthening the culture and infrastructure for research within the University of the Arts The Hague, and especially within the Royal Conservatoire. Lector Henk Borgdorff, former academic director of ACPA, steered the third cycle of the University of the Arts and was involved with the development of academic training within the Royal Conservatoire. The two lectorates worked closely together.