Thea­ter and Or­ches­tra Ma­nage­ment Mas­ter

The mas­ter's pro­gram­me in thea­ter and or­ches­tra ma­nage­ment trains B.A. gra­dua­tes from aca­de­mic and ar­tis­tic pro­grams, as well as col­leagues with pro­fes­sio­nal ex­pe­ri­ence, for midd­le and hig­her ma­nage­ment po­si­ti­ons in thea­ter, fes­ti­vals, in­de­pen­dent groups, or­che­s­tras and con­cert halls. Wi­t­hin four se­mes­ters, stu­dents com­ple­te twel­ve sub­jec­ts (mo­du­les) in which they are taught the la­test know­ledge in the are­as of thea­ter ma­nage­ment, or­ches­tra ma­nage­ment, play plan­ning, busi­ness ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­on, cul­tu­ral theo­ry, law, sche­du­ling, mar­ke­ting and pro­duc­tion, among others. The stu­dies take place in a small se­mi­nar group of max. 8 to 10 stu­dents and in in­ten­si­ve ex­chan­ge with more than 20 lec­tu­rers and the cour­se di­rec­tors.

In do­ing so, the cour­se cri­ti­cal­ly ex­ami­nes the cur­rent thea­ter and mu­sic land­s­cape and dis­cus­ses op­ti­ons and re­form mo­dels wi­t­hin the se­mi­nars and prac­ti­cal ex­er­ci­ses, in which more jus­ti­ce, grea­ter co-de­ter­mi­na­ti­on of en­sem­bles, flat­ter hier­ar­chies, more de­mo­cra­tic ma­nage­ment mo­dels and the ac­tive pro­mo­ti­on of wo­men, ac­ces­si­bi­li­ty and anti-discri­mi­na­ti­on are among the es­sen­ti­al cor­ner­stones. We also sup­port the de­mands of the en­sem­ble net­work and other or­ga­ni­za­ti­ons that ad­vo­ca­te for bet­ter working con­di­ti­ons for ar­tists.

The di­rec­tor of the pro­gram has re­cent­ly pu­blished Thea­ter, Kri­se und Re­form (by Sprin­ger VS. Wies­ba­den, 2016) and Macht und Struk­tur im Thea­ter: Asym­me­tri­en der Macht (by Sprin­ger VS. Wies­ba­den, 2019), which ana­ly­zes and dis­cus­ses the cur­rent thea­ter sys­tem ba­sed on the­se and other points.

Ad­mis­si­on to the Mas­ter's pro­gram­me in Thea­t­re and Or­ches­tra Ma­nage­ment re­qui­res a com­ple­ted BA de­gree in an ar­tis­tic or other sub­ject (thea­t­re, mu­sic, cul­tu­ral stu­dies, etc.) and the pas­sing of the ap­ti­tu­de test. We also ex­pect a high le­vel of in­te­rest in a pro­fes­sio­nal ca­re­er in this field, in­iti­al ex­pe­ri­ence from in­ternships or through your own work, and the abi­li­ty to also deal with ques­ti­ons about the fu­ture of thea­tres and or­che­s­tras in Ger­ma­ny. We are also in­te­rested in the thea­t­re and or­ches­tra sys­tems of other coun­tries. Ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons from stu­dents from other coun­tries are the­re­fo­re ex­pli­citly wel­co­me, pro­vi­ded they meet the above re­qui­re­ments.

Ad­mis­si­on to the mas­ter's pro­gram­me in thea­t­re and or­ches­tra ma­nage­ment ta­kes place in a two-sta­ge pro­ce­du­re.

All gra­dua­tes of ar­tis­tic or other sub­jec­ts (e.g. thea­t­re, mu­sic, cul­tu­ral stu­dies, etc.) with an in­te­rest in a fu­ture job in a thea­t­re, or­ches­tra, fes­ti­val or pro­duc­tion lo­ca­ti­on of the in­de­pen­dent sce­ne in Ger­ma­ny can ap­p­ly. The B.A. de­gree cer­ti­fi­ca­te does not have to be avail­ab­le by the ap­p­li­ca­ti­on dead­line, but pro­of that the de­gree will be avail­ab­le by the start of the win­ter se­mes­ter is re­qui­red.

The ap­p­li­ca­ti­on do­cu­ments con­sist of the fol­lo­wing parts:

• Let­ter of mo­ti­va­ti­on (2 DIN A4 pa­ges on the per­so­nal re­fe­ren­ces of a stu­dy and ca­re­er choice in the en­vi­ron­ment of thea­t­re and or­ches­tra)
• Cur­ri­cu­lum vi­tae
• De­gree cer­ti­fi­ca­te or pro­of of cur­rent sta­tus of stu­dies
• Ap­p­li­ca­ti­on es­say (5 - 8 pa­ges, in Ger­man, Eng­lish or Spa­nish)
• On­line ap­p­li­ca­ti­on via the web­site of the HfMDK Frank­furt

The ap­p­li­ca­ti­on es­say and do­cu­ments will be eva­lua­ted by a three-mem­ber ap­p­li­cant selec­tion com­mit­tee hea­ded by the pro­gram­me di­rec­tor, Prof. Dr. Tho­mas Schmidt.

We will then eva­lua­te the do­cu­ments and in­vi­te the best 12 - 14 ap­p­li­cants* to a qua­li­fy­ing ex­ami­na­ti­on, which will start at 1:30 pm on June 22, 2022 and last un­til ap­pro­xi­mate­ly 5:30 pm. The ap­ti­tu­de test will take place di­gi­tal­ly, so that you will not have to tra­vel.

The es­say should have a length of 5 - 8 pa­ges, of cour­se it can be lon­ger if you want to say more about one of the to­pics. The es­say may be writ­ten in Ger­man, Eng­lish or Spa­nish. You can tre­at the es­say eit­her sci­en­ti­fi­cal­ly, jour­na­listi­cal­ly or in a mi­xed form. Plea­se sub­mit the es­say tog­e­ther with your ap­p­li­ca­ti­on do­cu­ments and plea­se al­ways send a copy of your do­cu­ments di­rec­t­ly to thea­ter_und_or­ches­ter­ma­nage­ment@hfmdk-frank­furt.de in par­al­lel.

The cur­rent es­say to­pic:

Un­for­tu­n­a­te­ly, the Ger­man thea­ter and mu­sic land­s­cape is cur­r­ent­ly cha­rac­te­ri­zed by a slump in au­di­en­ces. The rea­sons for this are ob­vious: on the one hand, af­ter the long Co­ro­na break, many peop­le have be­co­me ac­custo­med to pre­fer­ring to spend their evenings at home; on the other hand, both the world po­li­ti­cal and the eco­no­mic si­tua­ti­on are very un­cer­tain. Many peop­le who used to go to the thea­ter are the­re­fo­re post­po­ning their vi­sits to the fu­ture. Thea­ters are ex­pe­ri­en­cing de­cli­ning au­di­ence num­bers and thus de­cli­ning re­ve­nues - but this must not be a per­ma­nent sta­te of af­fairs.

At the mo­ment the­re are no so­lu­ti­ons to the pro­blem of in­vi­t­ing more vi­si­tors again, as well as con­vin­cing the peop­le of the ci­ties of the im­por­t­an­ce and si­gni­fi­can­ce of the thea­ters, con­cert halls, or­che­s­tras, fes­ti­vals and in­de­pen­dent groups. The­re­fo­re, plea­se out­line brief­ly and con­cise­ly what you yours­elf see as the im­por­t­an­ce of thea­ters and mu­sic to­day and in the fu­ture, and what mea­su­res you would pro­po­se to sol­ve the pro­blem.

We look for­ward to re­cei­ving your es­says and your ide­as.

Es­say Wri­ting Tips:

An es­say is an in­vi­ta­ti­on to lin­ger in thought, not a scho­l­ar­ly work.

The­re­fo­re, plea­se try to think as free­ly and in­spi­red­ly as pos­si­ble about what mea­su­res we can take to re­invi­go­ra­te thea­ters and con­cert halls, fes­ti­vals and pro­duc­tion ve­nues in the fu­ture. Let us sha­re your thoughts on how you see the si­tua­ti­on and what you would do if you were in char­ge of a cul­tu­ral or­ga­ni­za­ti­on.

The­re is no right or wrong here, we are in­te­rested in what and how you think. Wri­te us your thoughts, sha­re with us your sug­ges­ti­ons and ide­as. 

We look for­ward to re­cei­ving your es­says and your ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons.

If you have any ques­ti­ons about wri­ting the es­say, plea­se con­tact the as­si­stant or the pro­gram di­rec­tor via mail at any time. We pro­mi­se to re­spond to you as soon as pos­si­ble.

The Stu­dy and Ex­ami­na­ti­on Re­gu­la­ti­ons (SPO) set out the frame­work con­di­ti­ons and re­gu­la­ti­ons for your stu­dies. They ap­p­ly tog­e­ther with the Ge­ne­ral Re­gu­la­ti­ons (for Ba­che­lor's and Mas­ter's de­gree pro­gram­mes) or the SPoL (for tea­cher trai­ning de­gree pro­gram­mes). All ver­si­ons of the SPO for your de­gree pro­gram­me (in­clu­ding ear­lier ver­si­ons for stu­dents of pre­vious aca­de­mic ye­ars) can be found at Ex­ami­na­ti­ons.