Open Call for Doctoral Artist-Researchers

Orpheus Instituut (Ghent, Belgium) is an international centre of excellence with its primary focus on artistic research in music. Its mission is to transform musical understanding and practice. Research at Orpheus Instituut is organised into clusters, each led by a Principal Investigator. Their areas of interest are outlined below. 

The institute is home to docARTES, an interinstitutional doctoral programme for artistic research in music.

Orpheus Instituut is looking for doctoral researchers who are interested in joining a research cluster, while pursuing a doctoral degree. This open call is intended for musicians with an outstanding artistic record, strong research skills, and transdisciplinary interests. 

Position

As a member of Orpheus Instituut you will:

• receive doctoral supervision from the relevant research cluster leader at Orpheus Instituut
• become an active participant in a research cluster
• benefit from assistance towards the dissemination of your work
• enjoy a stimulating interdisciplinary environment for research, study, and dialogue
• be encouraged to take initiative in (co-)organizing events, such as study days, seminars, lectures, concerts, and workshops
• be offered office space, access to Orpheus Instituut’s library (including the prestigious Ton Koopman Collection) and other resources (performance spaces, recording facilities, keyboard instruments, electronic studio, etc.)

Candidate Profile

The applicant:

• is fluent in English (written and spoken)
• has a Master’s degree, or equivalent experience
• deals with research questions which can be addressed through artistic enquiry
• can demonstrate an advanced artistic practice

Please consult the cluster descriptions for a more detailed description of individual positions.

Resounding Libraries challenges the notion of libraries as passive repositories by exploring connections between archives, music-making, and interpretation. The cluster seeks performers, composers, and curators interested in early modern knowledge representation and intermedial aesthetics, ideally with multilingual proficiency, multidisciplinary backgrounds, and digital fluency.

Declassifying the Classics develops new approaches to music(king) 1750–1850, and reconstructs rhetorical, technological, and socio-cultural contexts for historically informed performance. For a project on Late Beethoven, expertise or interest in one of the following is especially welcome: acoustics, deafness, materiality, historical pianos/strings, biography, sound recording, videography.

Music, Thought and Technology (MTT) investigates the role of technology in shaping musical thought and practice – contemporary and historical. Active practitioners in music technology, composition, improvisation, and sound art pursue artistic research projects including AI creativity, interactive music, telematic collaboration, computer-assisted composition, instrument/interface design and the materialities of electronic music.

HIPEX applies historically informed performance methods to critically engage with 1960s-70s experimental music and its (historical) performers. Seeks doctoral researchers investigating: performance versus compositional aesthetics, conducting, gender aspects, interpretative traditions, open works (improvisation, graphic scores), and word pieces.

Fragment: Accordances – Enactments explores fragmentation through process, reflexivity, and critical interactions with totality. Drawing nineteenth-century music into new contexts, including e-textiles and marginalized practices, it acts transhistorically. Seeks researchers investigating unfinished objects, aesthetics of fracture, interpretative traditions, and neglected/discriminated musical practices.

Applications for doctoral positions

The application consists of four stages: 

1. A written Proposal: one-page expression of interest containing a project proposal, one-page CV, links to artistic material, and identification of the relevant/desired research cluster. Submissions should be made via Airtable from September 1st. The last date for such submissions is October 31st 2025. Selections will be made in early November.

Selected candidates will be invited to:

2. An initial conversation with the relevant cluster leader to establish how your research interests may align with those of the cluster and Orpheus Instituut 

3. Following further selection, candidates will then prepare an application to the doctoral programme docARTES coordinated by Orpheus Instituut in partnership with other institutions, including those that award the degree. The process requires an interview with jury members of the docARTES programme, which will take place in April 2026, and subsequent approval by the relevant partner university. For information regarding the deadline, please consult the docARTES website.

4. A final decision regarding the allocation of available funding amongst the accepted doctoral candidates will be taken by Orpheus Instituut.

Selection criteria

Criteria for admission to docARTES may be found here: https://www.docartes.be/en/admission/admission-requirements

Support for living costs (€16.000 per annum) is available to a limited number of doctoral researchers.  

Selection for such support will be made on the basis of relevance to a particular cluster. Please indicate in your application if you wish to be considered for funding. This arrangement requires the researcher to maintain a consistent presence at Orpheus Instituut in Ghent.