Venues & stages

Type

University of music

Address

Rue de la Grotte 2, 1003 Lausanne

The HEMU is the university-level school that trains the professional musicians of western Switzerland. Part of the HES-SO, it brings together more than 500 students of around forty nationalities across three sites (Lausanne, Fribourg and Sion) and offers some fifty bachelor and master programmes. In canton Vaud it runs two poles: classical music, around Rue de la Grotte in Lausanne in the tradition of the Conservatory, and jazz and contemporary music, based in the Flon. Throughout the year the school gives many public concerts.

The HEMU, the Vaud university of music

From the Lausanne Conservatory to the HEMU

The story begins in 1861, when Gustave-Adolphe Koëlla founded the Lausanne Conservatory. In 2008 a reorganisation separated professional training, entrusted to the HEMU (University of Music), from non-professional teaching, which remained with the Conservatoire de Lausanne, both gathered within a single foundation.

Now part of the HES-SO, in the field of Music and performing arts, the HEMU welcomes more than 500 students of nearly forty nationalities and offers some fifty bachelor and master programmes. The classical pole remains anchored on Rue de la Grotte, at the foot of the old town, in the continuity of the old Conservatory.

The jazz and contemporary-music pole in the Flon

The jazz and contemporary-music department occupies a modern building at Côtes-de-Montbenon, in the lively Flon district, a few steps from Les Docks. It houses rehearsal rooms, recording and mixing studios and the fully modular BCV Concert Hall.

This proximity sums up the HEMU’s place in Vaud’s musical life: a school that trains tomorrow’s professionals and lets the classical tradition and today’s music converse within a single neighbourhood.