At Conservatorium Haarlem you will be trained to become a professional pop musician. You are deployable as session musician for acclaimed artists (live as well as in a studio environment) or can conquer the world with your own band and music. Apart from the instruments drums, bass guitar, guitar, piano/keys and vocals, Conservatorium Haarlem uniquely offers a pop education for brass (trumpet, trombone, saxophone). After graduating you are not only fit to become a professional musician but also certified to teach at music schools or independently. Finally, you are also trained to become a cultural entrepreneur. Both individually and cooperatively you initiate and organize performances, projects, and productions, and establish communications with clients and purchasers, already building your network during your education.

Professional profiles

You build your career through your own repertoire, written by you or a third party. Visibility in the live scene and (social) media attributes to your fame and reputation in order to reach the biggest possible audience. You operate as an independent entrepreneur and establish agreements with parties in the music industry that can offer you their specific services such as labels, publishers, managers and agents. You hire musicians and crew members to support you on stage or in the studio. You mainly generate your income through the three pillars for an artist/performer: live revenue, album sales and royalties.

Session Musician
You are a professional all-round musician who is deployable in many different ways, both in the studio as well as in a live music environment. You master a great diversity of genres, can switch rapidly between these, and you are fast at studying music and performing it according to the specific wishes of a client. You have a broad network of studios, labels, publishers, managers, artists and fellow session musicians. As an independent entrepreneur you generate your income for the most part through being hired by a variety of clients as well as through your related rights.

You are very skilled at writing music and lyrics. You are outwardly oriented and know what is going on in the market. You perform your own compositions but just as well might sell them to third parties through a publisher or by commission. You function as an independent entrepreneur, earning your money through assignments as well as royalties.

All the profiles mentioned above include the capability to design and carry out lessons and courses for groups and individuals.

Study Program

Instrument training by very experienced (session) musicians. Furthermore there are year bands and session bands, plus theoretical classes such as Transcription, Harmony, Songwriting, Rhythm & Timing and Roots. Additionally you also follow and curriculum revolving around Education and Entrepreneurship. There is an outstanding offer of master classes by esteemed musicians and three Theme Weeks per year that involve projects with eminent musicians.