Master in Sound Art. Contemporary Music Practices
NEXT EDITION
Duration: October 2027 to July 2028.
Format: 100% on-site in Valencia, Spain.
Schedule: Monday to Thursday, afternoons.
Graduation: 2nd week of July 2028
Language: English
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Welcome to the Master in Sound Art, an immersive journey into contemporary music practices, from language to the most advanced technologies of composition, synthesis and spatial audio.
This master is designed for musicians, composers and producers who already have a relationship with sound and are ready to take it further. Over the course of the programme you will deepen your understanding of music history and theory and gain genuine, practical fluency in the software and hardware of contemporary sound making. You will learn to compose in time and in space.
You will work alongside top professionals and cutting-edge experimental technology, building the knowledge and skills you need to create, spatialise, code and perform original sound work to a professional standard.
Student Profile
The Master in Sound Art is aimed at musicians, composers and producers who want to deepen their practice and treat sound as their primary artistic material. The programme is designed especially for people who already have a relationship with sound and want to expand it, musically, technically and conceptually, through music history and theory, the most advanced sound technology, spatial audio and live performance.
Electronic and experimental musicians who want to step out of their comfort zone and move into modular systems, spatial sound and live performance throughout the year.
Producers comfortable in a DAW who want to go further: building their own instruments in Max/MSP, composing for space and turning their tracks into exhibited and performed works.
Contemporary or conservatoire-trained composers who want to move beyond the score and make the leap into installation, synthesis, spatial audio and electronic performance.
Improvisers and live performers looking for a scene, a stage every month and collaboration with visual artists.
Trained instrumentalists with little or no software experience who want to become confident producers, sound designers and electronic performers.
Creative coders and technologists with a musical sensibility who want to turn their technical skill into an artistic sound practice, working with generative systems, sensors and interactivity.
Sound artists and interdisciplinary creators whose work has been moving towards sound and who want to truly master the tools, with a public festival in which to show it.
Graduates in music, composition, music technology, sound or related creative disciplines who wish to develop a professional, high-quality body of sound work for their portfolio.
What will you learn in the Master in Sound Art?
Through a series of core modules, you will explore the technical, aesthetic and conceptual dimensions of sound as an artistic medium. The training includes hands-on experience with industry-standard tools such as Ableton Live for production, sound design and live performance; and Max/MSP and Max for Live to build your own instruments and effects, and to extend your acoustic instruments with sensors and programming.
You will also work with modular systems and creative coding for algorithmic composition and performance, and with an octophonic system to compose and diffuse sound in space. All of this is complemented by a full year of training in listening, music history and theory, which trains the ear behind every technical decision.
The Final Major Project module cuts across all the other modules and guides students in the development and presentation of live concerts and of music that interacts with installations, at the 5th edition of the MICME. Interactive Art Festival in June 2028, with LABA Valencia transformed into a venue for installations and sound proposals created by the master’s students and teachers.
Programme
The programme combines professional industry tools with critical listening, artistic thinking and portfolio-oriented project development. During the master you will work across four fundamental areas of sound art:
Context: Listening and Musical Language
Module: Context. Listening and Musical Language
Music theory and harmony
Contemporary sound art and its contexts
Extended and Hybrid Instruments and Tools
Integrating analogue equipment and digital tools
Max/MSP and Max for Live
Hybrid workflows and machines
Audio programming: modular systems and code
Composition and Live Performance
Ableton Live: production, sound design and live performance
Spatial sound composition: octophonic
Mixing and mastering
Music Business
Overview of the state of the art
Portfolio, documentation and artist statement
Rights, licensing
Grants, residencies and open calls
Programme and Concerts
During the academic year, students will prepare concerts open to the public under the direction of the Sound Art master. This concert series may be developed in collaboration with students from the MICME master, who will contribute light art creation, laser improvisation, sensors, video scenography and much more.
The series will culminate in the MICME. Interactive Art Festival, where, in its 5th edition, students from both masters who wish to do so will work together on interactive sound installations. The festival will also feature several daily concerts by the Master in Sound Art students, a listening room for pieces composed by the students, and the closing concert of the MICME festival.
Download the module schedule here
The master’s faculty
Ilgin Icozu
Director of the Master in Sound Art.
Teacher of the modules “Listening & Musical Language [1970 – present]” and “Spatial Sound Compositions [octaphonic]” in the Master in Sound Art.
Graduate in Music Composition from Istanbul Bilgi University, with a master’s degree in Sonic Arts from Istanbul Technical University (MIAM). He is a new media artist working at the intersection of sound design and generative art. His work combines immersive audio, interactive visuals and creative coding. His composition and sound design credits include immersive installations such as Everything by Nohlab, Matter by Vitamin Arte, and La Ruta. He is also part of the artist duo dist.cs, focused on generative works that have been exhibited internationally, including at Art Basel Miami.
Pablo Palacio
Teacher of the module “Hybrid Workflows / Machines: Integrating Analogue Gear and Digital Tools” in the Master in Sound Art.
Composer. He has been an artist in residence in Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Lebanon, and his works have been performed in several countries, from Europe and the United States to China, India and Brazil, and released by the label Sub Rosa on Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music #6. He is a very active composer in the field of performing arts. He collaborates with the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, designing interactive virtual instruments for people with disabilities. He also takes part, through lectures, seminars and workshops, in institutions such as the Franz Liszt Hochschule, Missouri State University (USA), Birmingham Conservatoire, the Conservatorio Superior María de Ávila and the Master in Contemporary Performing Practice and Visual Culture at the UAH. His work focuses on the perceptual connections between sound images that emerge in the course of a composition.
Carlos Giffoni
Teacher of the module “Max/MSP – Audio Programming” in the Master in Sound Art.
Venezuelan-born electronic music composer and improviser, a foundational presence in the global experimental music scene since arriving in the United States in 1996. MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, New York.
His solo work is built on custom electronic devices, with analogue and digital synthesizers, to create abstract compositions of shifting sonic layers. He has released on labels such as Room40, Ideologic Organ and Important Records, and is the curator of the iconic No Fun Fest, which returns with editions in New York (2026) and Valencia (2027). He has collaborated with musicians such as Ikue Mori, Jim O’Rourke, Merzbow, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. He has completed residencies at prestigious institutions such as INA/GRM in Paris and EMS in Stockholm.
He is currently based in Valencia and is presenting his new record, Pendulum (Room40, 2026), with collaborations from Zola Jesus, Mabe Fratti and Ben Chasny.
https://carlosgiffoni.bandcamp.com/
Joan Gómez Alemany
Teacher of the module “Listening & Musical Language [Early Music to 1970]” in the Master in Sound Art.
Composer, visual artist and writer, and co-editor of the magazine Sul Ponticello. His work integrates contemporary sound art, visual arts and film. He studied composition at the Conservatori del Liceu with Oliver Rappoport. He graduated in piano from the Conservatori Superior “Joaquín Rodrigo” (Spain). He completed a master’s degree in Composition with Franck Bedrossian and another in Opera and Music Theatre with Clemens Gadenstätter at the Kunstuniversität Graz (Austria). He holds a degree in Fine Arts and a PhD (cum laude) from the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, with a thesis on artistic interdisciplinarity (Spain). He has furthered his training with Pierluigi Billone, Mark André, Stefan Prins, Hèctor Parra and Mauricio Sotelo, among others.
He was resident composer of the Projecte Residències of the Orfeó Universitari de Valencia (2026) and is resident composer of the Grup Instrumental de Valencia for its 2026–2027 season, marking its 35th anniversary. His work has been published by Liquen Records and distributed through platforms such as BabelScores.
Nader Abozied
Teacher of the module “Modular Synthesis + Integrating Acoustic Gear” in the Master in Sound Art.
Musician, producer and audiovisual artist with a background in music production and visual art. He is part of Cairo’s underground electronic scene and is associated with the Kairo Is Koming (KIK) collective, with whom he has performed and toured Europe. He has released music with projects such as PanSTARRS and has produced and created video art for other artists in the Cairo scene. He has performed in countries including Lebanon, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and the United States. His recent performances include immersive concerts at Bombas Gens, Valencia, as part of the MICME Festival at LABA Valencia, and a performance at Berlin New Media Week, also an immersive AV concert. Graduate of the MICME Master, 2024-25 edition.
https://linktr.ee/naderabozied
Bilge Günay
Teacher of the module “Music Business” in the Master in Sound Art.
Based in Valencia, she is a Turkish new media artist, creative sound technologist and cultural producer. She graduated in Arts and Cultural Management from Istanbul Bilgi University (2017), holds a master’s degree in Music Management and Business from the Istanbul Technical University Center for Advanced Studies in Music (İTÜ MİAM, 2021) and completed the Master in Multimedia Creation for Live Shows (MICME) at LABA Valencia (2024-2025).
She has worked for several years in the live and recorded music industry, coordinating multidisciplinary teams, productions, budgets, tours and technical logistics for events and artists. Over time she expanded her practice into immersive audiovisual projects, video mapping, light installations, creative coding and sound design.
She is part of the artist duo dist.cs, focused on audiovisual live performances, and collaborates on the music project Homurtu. Her artistic work focuses on the intersection of sound, light, code art and live experiences.
https://bilgegunayicozu.xyz/
Pablo Iglesias Rosado
Teacher of the module “Mixing & Mastering” in the Master in Sound Art.
With a background in classical percussion and engineering, he currently works as a mastering engineer and multimedia artist. His professional career spans music production, mixing and mastering, collaborating with international artists such as Gui Boratto, Patrice Baumel and Adana Twins, as well as with creative studios, agencies and record labels such as Banjo Soundscapes, DEPT and Guesstimate.
Among his credits are two finalist projects at the Music+Sound Awards 2026 (MASA2026), a short film selected at DocsValència, and his participation in projects presented at Bombas Gens, CCCC, Oven Club and the Ensems Festival.
https://www.instagram.com/opiodelmono/
LABA Valencia, a young and international school
With a practical, multidisciplinary methodology, LABA Valencia trains its students in motion graphics and branding, art and technology, multimedia creation for live shows, spatial experience design, music and sound art, graphic design and digital media, fine art and commercial photography, and video and filmmaking.
Classes are small, the relationship with faculty is close and direct, and the teaching team is made up of artists, designers and professionals who bring an up-to-date perspective on both industry demands and the possibilities of creative practice into the classroom.
Through projects developed in collaboration with companies and cultural institutions, and close mentoring throughout each programme, students develop their own creative voice, build a professional portfolio and gain the tools to confidently enter the international creative industries landscape. Some of its programmes, the MICME and Sound Art masters, culminate in a public interactive art festival that has become one of the school’s defining features.
LABA Valencia is a young, international and ambitious school that has found in Valencia the ideal place from which to train the next generation of creators with a global outlook, solid technical mastery and the freedom to develop a language of their own.
You will live in Valencia, Spain’s third largest city.
Valencia is widely considered one of the best cities in the world for students, due to its high quality of life, Mediterranean climate, affordable costs, safety, and rich cultural and academic offerings.
In recent years, it has been chosen as World Design Capital 2022, European Capital of Smart Tourism 2022, European Capital of Innovation Finalist 2022, European Green Capital 2024, and best city in the world for international students to live in 2024!
Admission Process
The admission procedure consists of three steps:
■ pre-registration
■ selection/admission
■ enrollment.
Contact us and we will answer all your questions. You can also request an in-person or videoconference appointment directly here.
Prices 2027 / 28
• Price: €12,000
WE OFFER 6 SCHOLARSHIPS OF 3,000 EUROS EACH
Tuition fees can be paid in different installments.
Financing:
If you are a resident in Spain, you can finance your master’s degree with the Skills & Education loan from CaixaBank.
■ Up to €30,000 for studies, stays, or other related expenses
■ No guarantor required
■ Repayment over 6 years with up to 1 year of grace period
■ No opening fee or notary costs
■ Fixed interest rates
At LABA Valencia, we offer free legal advice on VISA once you have enrolled.
LABA Valencia. School of Art, Design & New Media
Calle Quart 21-23 – 46001 Valencia, España
Teléfono de atención al estudiante:
+34 638975113
