In addition to the Bachelor's degree, the Master's degree in church music represents a further professional qualification. With the degree, graduates fulfil the ecclesiastical employment requirements for service as cantors and organists in so-called A positions or comparable positions.
Diversity determines the professional field
The acquisition of a Master's degree qualifies church musicians in a special way for outstanding artistic and theoretical-scientific achievements in the fields of church music work. They are also in a position to take over the professional supervision and, if necessary, also the supervision of church music in a church region with offers for the training and further education of full-time and part-time church musicians, to advise church committees in professional matters and to represent church music in public.
*You will receive details of your aptitude test dates with your invitation approx. 3 to 4 weeks before your aptitude test appointment.
Admission to the Master's programme requires a Bachelor's degree in Church Music (Protestant/Catholic) or a Diplom degree in Church Music B (Protestant/Catholic) and a passed aptitude test.
- current passport photo (the following formats are accepted: GIF, JPEG, JPG or PNG)
- Complete and up-to-date curriculum vitae in tabular form (up to the year of application)
- School leaving certificate (if not yet available, the last school certificate is sufficient for the time being), in case of foreign certificates a certified translation in German or English is required*
- If applying for a Master's degree: Bachelor's certificate or equivalent, "Transcript of Records", if applying for a concert exam: Master's certificate or equivalent, "Transcript of Records "*
- For applicants from the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, certificate of the Academic Evaluation Service (APS) (PR China // Vietnam)
- Proof of language skills according to the requirements of the degree programmes (see below, Language certificates)
- Please note that you have to submit additional documents in the different study programmes. Please inform yourself about this on the website of the respective study program for which you are applying under "aptitude test". Among other things, letter of motivation, assignments, phoniatric report (voice)...
*If you do not have all final certificates at the time of application, please submit the most recent certificates and supporting documents in advance. Submit the final documents without being asked and in good time before the start of your studies. If you have any questions, please contact us immediately.
Please fill out the online application completely and upload all requested documents. After you have submitted your online application with a final mouse click, you will receive an email from us confirming the receipt of your application.
After the application deadline, you will receive an invoice from us for an administrative fee of 50 Euro. Please transfer the fee to the account of the HfMDK stating your invoice number and name within the mentioned payment deadline. Only when the administrative fee has been credited to the university's account is your application complete and can be processed.
The application fee is charged per applicant. If you apply for two courses or subjects, no further fee is due. The fee will be due again if you reapply at a later date (new round of applications).
A refund of the application fee is excluded - this also applies if the application is withdrawn.
Here you will find a list of required German language skills for all degree programs. Please check which of these requirements apply to your degree program.
The qualifying examination for the Church Music Master's programme (Protestant/Catholic) takes place in the subjects organ, congregational accompaniment/improvisation, piano, voice and choral conducting.
- Preparation of a programme with at least three works from different stylistic periods including J. S. Bach and the 20th/21st century. The selection of individual pieces and movements is made by the examination committee (examination duration 20 minutes)
- Submission of a repertoire list
- prepared: Improvisation of a partita (at least four movements) or a three-part fantasia on a hymn of the student's choice
- unprepared: Harmonizing hymns with prelude
(Exam duration 15 minutes)
Preparation of a programme of at least three works from different stylistic periods including J. S. Bach, the Viennese Classical period and the 20th/21st century. The selection of individual pieces and movements is made by the examination committee.
- Singing an aria from an oratorio or cantata
- Singing from the sheet a part from a choral score
Test duration for piano and voice together is approx. 25 minutes.
- Choir rehearsal on a prepared choral movement of medium difficulty (15 copies of the choral score are to be kept ready by the candidate)
- From-sheet playing of a simple contrapuntal choral movement from the score
(Duration of examination 25 minutes)
[Nicht-amtliche Lesefassung. Stand: 18.12.2023]
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.
Stand: 27.05.2019