Folk Music
As a folk musician, you have the whole world as your place of work. Our courses give you professional competence and prepare you for a life as a performing freelance musician.
Our newly built campus gives you access to state-of-the-art practice rooms, studios and concert halls. Folk music has existed at KMH for more than forty years, which provides a very stable foundation for studies that develop your artistic and technical ability.
At the Folk Music Department, you will meet a creative and dynamic study environment with a diversity of traditions and main instruments. The courses offer specialization on your main instrument and within your field of study, with great opportunities to develop in ensemble playing and arranging. Here, as a folk musician, you get space to profile yourself with the help of the foremost educators in the field.
Our programmes
KMH offers a three-year bachelor's degree with two specialisations; Swedish Folk Music, and Folk Music/Art Music from Other Cultures. Our alumni represent a diversity of Nordic, Baluch, Kurdish, Indian, Senegalese, Chilean, Argentinian, Arabic, Persian, French and British musical traditions, among others. Please note that Swedish is required for the bachelor's programmes.
At master's level we offer Swedish Folk Music and Nordic Performance Master in Folk Music, (NoFo), which is a collaboration with the Sibelius Academy (SibA) in Finland, the Southern Danish Music Conservatory & Skuespillerskole (SDMK) in Denmark and the Ole Bull Academy in Norway.
The teachers
Here, some of the leading artists and educators in Swedish folk music teach with a focus on violin, singing, music theory, dance and ensemble. Other teachers are involved depending on the students' background and wishes.
Staff at the Department of Folk Music (in Swedish only)
External link.
Folk music events
The Department of Folk Music offers a wide range of public concerts such as Monday concerts, graduation concerts, dance evenings and a large Christmas concert. We continuously collaborate with folk and world music organizers, educational centers, amateur organizations and various research institutions, nationally and internationally. This includes collaborations with the concert hall Stallet, world music organizer ReOrient and with Västanå Teater - on methodology in storytelling and folk music.
LÅT!
Låt! is the annual festival and gathering of folk music: concerts, workshops, dance and game nights and folk music festival in one!
KMH FOLK
In this large ensemble students explore and experiment with ensemble playing in folk music. KMH FOLK appears on KMH and on a number of scenes around the country. It's not an orchestra. It's not a big band. It's not a "spelmanslag". It's KMH FOLK.
International collaborations
The Department of Folk Music is an active party within international networks for folk music in higher music education such as AEC, FolkMusEd and NordTrad. Student and teacher exchanges are an important part of the institution's international anchoring, and sometimes it happens that the entire institution goes on a study trip and tour through Europe.
Research
At the Department of Folk Music, artistic research in music is conducted in close collaboration with other researchers, institutions and organisations. The department has two professors and one PhD student within KMH's collaboration with KTH. The research at the department often deals with musical expressions and methods for artistic creation in areas such as improvisation, kulning (herding), folk singing, music for dance and music theory.