Zürcher Hochschule der Künste og Fakultet for kunst, musikk og design (BILATERAL)

Haust 2018 - MA utøvande musikk

Førebuingar/praktiske tips

Zürich is full of students, but not full of student housing. Finding a place to live in Zürich is extremely difficult. So if you decide to apply to Zürich you should start to look up for apartment as soon as you can. The international office in ZhDK will help you to find a place, but make sure you will have enough time to find one before your exchange.
Living in Zurich is expensive but there are some things that can save you some money. If you like to travel you should buy Halbtax, with which you can travel all around Switzerland with half price. Also, young people aged between 16 and 25 can bay Gleis-7-Abonnement ticket, with which you can travel free of charge by train between 7pm and 5 am.
One good way to move around city is bicycle. Bicycle road network in Zurich is really good and bicycle is possibly the fastest and cheapest way to move around Zürich.
In Zürich all the people can't speak English, so you really should learn German. At least a little bit, so you can take it all out of you exchange experience.

Undervisningsformer

In the music department the teaching methods are the same than anywhere; Private lessons with your main instrument teacher, group lessons with your class, private and group lessons with your accompanist and chamber music if you want. You can also choose secondary instrument and have private lessons with another teacher or for example have a teacher for orchestral excerpts only.

Vurdering av emnetilbodet

Teachers in ZhDk are really good and the selection of courses is comprehensive. Most of the courses are in German but all the teachers speak fluent English. There are lot of interesting courses and sometimes it is even possible to take courses from another department. For the music students there are lot of useful and practical courses, for example preparing for audition, training of performing, training of ear, improvisation, orchestral excerpts and orchestral literature for wind instruments among many others.

Fagleg utbyte og språk

In general, all the courses in ZhDK are in German. I didn't study German during my exchange in ZhKD and I could easily survive in everyday life with English, but I would have learnt much more during some classes if I had known German. Most of my lessons were private lessons with my teachers so there our language was English.
One semester is short time to learn new language, but for longer stay it is worth the trouble.

Universitetsområdet og byen

ZHdK is huge and it is located in the Toni-Areal, about 2,5 km from the center of Zurich. All the art students are in the same campus, which means there is almost 3000 students making the everyday life lively and interesting. All the time something is happening. Exhibitions, dance shows, concerts. In the campus there are various restaurants and cafes, a museum, a movie theater, a music club, a huge library and several concert halls. At first the building felt too big and overwhelming but after a while I started to love it. My favorite place was the library, where I went daily to explore the music shelves and to listen music and relax. It is possible to spend the whole day at the Toni campus and never get bored.
Zurich is small but charming city located by the beautiful Lake Zurich. Some days, when it's not cloudy, it is possible to see the mountains behind the lake. The center is old and historical and the crystal clear Limmat river is slowly running through it. Zurich is full of amazing nature and stunning landscapes.

Bustad

Finding housing is difficult and rents are expensive. This is absolutely the biggest problem for studying in Zürich. There is not a lot of student housing. Instead, students rent apartments with each other and share the living expenses. It is possible to find a shared apartment with other students in a reasonable price, if you are lucky. Lots of student also live in Winterthur, which is small neighbor city of Zürich. I found my apartment trough contacts and friends, which is the best way to find housing in Zurich. There are also lot of web sides for finding cheap housing.

Sosialt miljø

Zurich is city of students and city of culture. This means something interesting is happening all the time and it is easy to find the right and like-minded people around you. People in Zürich are nice and kind but they like to have their own space.
Most of my fellow students in ZHdK came from abroad and the social atmosphere at the university as well in the whole city feels quite international for me. People coming from several different countries makes the cultural environment interesting and exciting.