Master’s Degree Programme in Performing Arts

This programme is suitable for those who wish to complete an in-depth study as a performing or creative artist. Our goal is for you to realise your personal artistic profile and develop your insight and skills to a professional level. This means that the programme is open to all styles and genres within the four areas of dance, classical music, conducting and jazz/improvisation.

Practical artistic work is essential in the master's programme and emphasis is placed on creativity and innovation. As a student, you will acquire knowledge through lessons, supervision and independent study. Your self-defined master's project is the axis of the programme around which everything else revolves. By specialising in this, you will gain a solid foundation for developing a personal artistic expression and profile and the ability for independence and professional reflection.

Our three different subject areas give us the opportunity to operate across artistic expressions in dance and music. This is reflected in both working methods and the structure of courses. You will meet fellow students in the Master's Forum where you present to each other and receive impulses from outside via guest lecturers. You will also work on joint artistic processes in Multi-Artistic Lab. Furthermore there are opportunities for joint performance and community outreach projects in collaboration with external partners or as a student-driven activity.

But first and foremost, you will experience a discipline-based professional concentration in the programme. In addition to providing supervision by its own academic community, the faculty also facilitates meetings with Norwegian and foreign guest teachers through projects, master classes, courses, seminars and lectures.

We also emphasise that you should be able to practice reflecting on and articulate how your art practice and creation relates to society as a whole, how art engages in dialogue with current cross-cultural issues and currents in society, and what role art can address general societal challenges.

In Bjergsted Culture Park, there are close ties between the faculty's activities and the region’s professional art and cultural life. We utilise this in the parts of the programme that deal with communication, entrepreneurship and relevance to working life. You will be given tools to orientate yourself in a changing labour market. This can, for example, take place through practical projects with our many external partners. Here you will gain professional work experience and already have the opportunity to customise and build networks for your future as a performing artist or for example as a producer or curator. The faculty's partners include Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (SSO), Stavanger Concert Hall, Stavanger Jazz Forum, MaiJazz, TOU, Regional Arena for Contemporary Dance (RAS), STAR, Sandnes Cultural Centre, West Norwegian Jazz Centre, Opera Rogaland, Sandnes Symphony Orchestra, Elefantteateret, Folken, Spor5 and Forsvarets Musikk.

The programme is offered as a full-time programme over two years or as a part-time programme over three years. Master's Specialisation I-III (60 credits) is the core subject and constitutes the independent work in the programme. Here you will work under supervision on your development as an artist and choose a specialisation in the form of a self-defined master's project linked to performing and/or creative artistic practice. The other courses are intended to support this work and the programme's final product, which is the master's project presentation in the fourth semester.

The supporting courses give you the opportunity to concentrate on specific areas of practice and expertise (Professional Context I-III, 20 credits), knowledge of working life, communication skills and the ability to place your artistic practice in a social context (Art in Society I-II, 2x10 credits), relevant theoretical perspectives and approaches (Theory in Artistic Practice and Research, 10 credits), and interdisciplinary creative impulses (Multi-Artistic Lab, 10 credits).

For full-time students, an international semester is included as an elective in the third semester.

Purely theoretical components can be completed digitally. Joint teaching in larger groups and projects with practical/performing components will be organized in blocks. This ensures that students work systematically and receive regular impulses from their own specialised environment and from the programme's interdisciplinary community, while at the same time leaving enough room for individual work and the development of their own project.

Language

English, Scandinavian languages.

The language of instruction in the master's programme is English. Scandinavian languages can be used in groups with only Scandinavian-speaking students.

Learning outcomes

A candidate who has completed and passed the programme shall have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The candidate...

• has advanced knowledge in the relevant field of study and specialized insight into their area of specialization
• has in-depth knowledge of artistic theory and methods, research approaches and ethics
• can apply knowledge in new areas within the field
• can analyse academic issues relevant to the specialisation area based on the subject's history, traditions, distinctive character and place in society.
• has gained an insight into artistic practices, approaches and techniques outside their own specialization and can reflect on their own and others' artistic practice based on their own field of study

Skills
The candidate...

• can realise and communicate his/her artistic choices and intentions with an independent artistic profile and a mature artistic expression
• can use relevant methods for artistic research and/or research in an independent manner
• can analyse and relate critically to different sources of information and use these to structure and articulate academic reasoning and perspectives
• can conduct performing and creative dissemination activities alone and together with others and carry out an independent, defined specialization project, under supervision and in line with applicable professional and research ethics norms

General competence
The candidate...

• can identify and relate to relevant professional, professional and research ethical challenges and opportunities
• can demonstrate reflection and innovation through the application of knowledge and skills in new areas of work
• can convey extensive independent work and master the forms of expression within their area of specialization
• can communicate and communicate music- or dance-related issues in a critically reflective way, both within the academic community and with the audience
• can contribute to new thinking and in innovation processes with artistic competence
• has an awareness of quality concepts within their own art form and area of specialization

Career prospects

The Master's Programme in Performing Arts educates dance artists, instrumentalists, singers and conductors for a versatile professional field of performers and for professions such as performers in orchestras, bands, choirs, dance companies and more. Together with practical pedagogical education, the programme also provides competence for employment in the school system (singing/instrumental/dance teacher or conductor in cultural schools, primary schools, upper secondary schools, folk high schools, colleges/universities).

The Master's degree in Performing Arts provides the basis for further studies in the third cycle (PhD in Artistic Research).

The Master's degree in Performing Arts provides the basis for further studies in the third cycle (PhD in Artistic Research).

Course assessment

The programme is quality assured through UiS's quality system and standards and criteria in the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Research and NOKUT. The courses, and the study programme as a whole, are revised in the annual study programme revision. The systematic quality work includes annual study programme evaluations in addition to periodic programme evaluations and reaccreditation. The courses, and the programme as a whole, are revised in the annual study programme revision. The students receive close follow-up from the academic staff and are also offered supervision from the study coordinator. The faculty's management is in regular contact with student representatives.