Students in the Historical Performance Practice Program (HPP) at Case Western Reserve University are part of a small, highly selective, and fully funded experience for advanced students destined for leadership in the early music field. Our degree programs provide graduates with a wide range of marketable career-building skills while encouraging creativity and exploration. Using the skills they have acquired at CWRU, our graduates have gone on to take college-level academic positions with a strong performance component, historical performance ensemble leadership roles, and to enjoy successful performance careers.
Degree Programs
MA and DMA degrees fully funded, with generous stipends awarded to all admitted graduate students!
- Perform repertoire from Middle Ages to ca. 1850 using the Kulas Collection of Historical Instruments
- Pursue original research on performance practice topics
- Collaborate with conservatory faculty and students through our Joint Music Program with the Cleveland Institute of Music
- Take seminars in performance practice and musicology tailored to the scholar-performer (topics include continuo, baroque dance, notation, improvisation, historical analysis)
- Gain leadership and solo experience in ensembles and recitals
Research
Based on the philosophy that outstanding historical performers also need to be excellent historians and researchers, the program combines high-level performance training with rigorous academic study. Students take private lessons with our renowned applied faculty and visiting artists; participate in a variety of ensembles from Medieval to Romantic; enroll in musicology classes and targeted HPP seminars; and prepare lecture recitals by working closely with a faculty advisor – all with the aim of deepening their understanding of the repertories they perform and their historical contexts.
Ensembles and Performance Opportunities
The HPP program offers a variety of ensembles from Medieval to Romantic, and the Kulas Collection of historical instruments (over one hundred renaissance, medieval and baroque string, wind, and brass instruments) is available to all students. The program also owns various historical keyboard instruments: French, Italian, and German harpsichords, a continuo organ, and two fortepianos.
Ensembles include Baroque Chamber Ensembles, Baroque Dance Ensemble, Baroque Orchestra, Collegium Musicum, Early Music Singers, and Baroque Vocal Ensemble.
Historical Performance Practice students pursuing academic coursework may participate in our various music ensembles. View the Participation Information page to learn more about ensemble offerings, audition details, registration requirements, and helpful resources for students participating in musical activities.
Undergraduate students with an interest in this area of study are welcome to audition on a period instrument/voice, and incorporate applied study, HPP ensembles, and targeted HPP courses into their curriculum. |
Affiliated Faculty and Artists
Julie Andrijeski
Senior Instructor
Head of Historical Performance Practice
Historical Violin, Historical Dance
Baroque Orchestra, Baroque Chamber Ensembles, Baroque Dance Ensemble
Elena Bailey
Lecturer
Soprano
Early Music Singers, Baroque Dance Ensemble
Peter Bennett
Professor
Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Historical Performance Practice
Harpsichord, Organ
Baroque Vocal Ensemble, Continuo, Ornamentation, Improvisation, Intro to HPP
Francesca Brittan
Associate Professor
Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Musicology
Historical Keyboards
18th- and 19th-century Performance Practice
Georgia Cowart
Professor
French Baroque Spectacle
Tyler Duncan
Voice, bass-baritone
Kulas Visiting Artist
Jaap ter Linden
Lecturer
Cello, Viola da Gamba
Baroque Orchestra, Baroque Chamber Ensembles
Susan McClary
Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Music
Head of Musicology
Pre-tonal Theory, Early Music Performance Practices
Catharina Meints
Viola da Gamba
Kulas Visiting Artist
David J. Rothenberg
Professor
Department Chair
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Charles Weaver
Lute
Kulas Visiting Artist
Kathie Stewart
Flute
Joint Music Program