Cologne as a training location combines tradition and innovation: since the 1950s, the development of historical performance practice has been largely based in Cologne and has gone out into the world. Numerous orchestras and ensembles have established themselves here over the decades and form a lively concert life in the region, in the heart of Europe and far beyond.

Our Institute for Early Music at the Cologne University of Music and Dance emerged from this environment, where the latest findings in performance practice have been and continue to be incorporated into teaching and projects.

13 teachers, 2 accompanists, all renowned specialists, and around 35 students work together on music from the 16th to the 19th century. With the Bachelor's and Master's degree courses, almost all types of historical instruments and singing are represented in the wide range of courses on offer. This includes individual and group lessons, chamber music, basso continuo, performance practice and ornamentation theory.

Public concerts, interdisciplinary projects and regular collaborations with other departments of the Cologne University of Music and Dance or external institutions (educational institutions, event organizers, ensembles) also contribute to providing the most comprehensive musical education possible. This provides interested students with the necessary prerequisites to prepare themselves for a successful musical career.

The institute offers a wide range of courses for this purpose:
Voice, baroque violin / baroque viola, baroque violoncello, viola da gamba, historical flutes / transverse flute, historical oboe / baroque oboe, recorder, natural horn, baroque trumpet, lute, harpsichord, fortepiano.