The Conservatory offers a Bachelor's and a Master's programme in viola da gamba, integrated into the Early Music Department. The Bachelor's programme is organized in three years and the Master's programme in two years. The Bachelor's programme focuses on the learning of specific historical techniques: position and posture, different bowing techniques depending on the repertoire, research into sonorities and diction.
This approach is closely linked to the applied theory courses in the early music section. The training also includes courses in reading and transposition, theory and writing.
In addition to weekly group and individual instrument and chamber music lessons, the student participates each year in colloquia, concerts, seminars, orchestral sessions and conferences organized by the department.
On the basis of these solid achievements, the master's studies allow the student to deepen particular instrumental and artistic practices in the viola da gamba repertoire
The exploration of the extensive literature of the instrument (from 1650 to 1800) is continued in order to develop the multiple facets of a viola da gamba player in the Baroque period, whether as a virtuoso soloist, consort player or improviser, in order to arrive, at the end of the cycle, at the public implementation of his or her personal artistic project, accompanied by an in-depth research.
In this cycle, the importance of chamber music is even greater and encourages contacts directly linked to the professional world (concerts, recordings, etc.).
The student participates in ambitious projects, thanks to the artistic partnerships of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels