The three-year first cycle is the foundation for learning to be a performer and leads to the DNSPM. The teachers, exceptional artists and teachers, guide the students in the development of their practice and their relationship with their instrument. At the end of their studies, students reach a professional level and can perform in a wide range of fields, from solo to orchestral and chamber music. The wide range of fields explored means that they are able to tackle all repertoires, from baroque to contemporary.

Instrumental lessons, which make up a large part of the training, play a central role, enabling each student to develop and express his or her artistic sensibilities. In order to train artists who are open to the world, this teaching takes a broad perspective, combining theoretical aspects (musical training, analysis, history of music) with practical aspects (chamber music and orchestra). Various options can be added to this general curriculum to meet individual aspirations, always with a view to training well-rounded, fulfilled artists. Seminars, lectures and master classes are regularly offered on a wide variety of themes. Performers who so wish can also complete their studies by taking the DE (teacher training) course, or the joint course with Sorbonne University leading to a degree in music and musicology.

Lasting two years, the second cycle offers performers the opportunity to achieve the highest standards in the practice of their art, with autonomy and a critical sense. Through intensive individual and group practice, students are helped to assert and express their artistic personality. The field of exploration is particularly wide-ranging, enabling each student to forge his or her own repertoire, whether as a soloist, chamber musician or orchestral player. The end-of-year recital, the high point of the course, gives each student the opportunity to develop and perform his or her own programme in public. By the end of the course, artists will have the resources they need to continue their development in complete autonomy. The acquisition of essential tools and skills for managing a career and projects is designed to facilitate their professional development.

Orchestral training is also offered through orchestral sessions conducted by guest conductors from the professional world. There is also an introduction to research, including the acquisition of methodology (first year) and personal study work (second year). Various options can be added to this general curriculum, to meet the aspirations of each student, always with a view to training complete and fulfilled artists.

In addition to their studies, instrumentalists can take an introduction to the viola da gamba as a stylistic and technical complement to their main discipline.

Set up by Olivier Trachier in 1989, the ^XVth - ^XVIIth Century Polyphony class is now a unique feature of the Paris Conservatoire. It is devoted to the study of compositional techniques and the polyphonic repertoire in the West, from the ^fifteenth to the ^seventeenth centuries, particularly between 1550 and 1650. Combining analysis and composition, this course focuses on the main genres of sacred and secular vocal music for 2 to 12 voices, including the motet, psalm, mass, madrigal and chanson.

At the crossroads between music training, chamber music, instrumental and orchestral classes, the sight-reading class gives instrumentalists the essential solfeggio, musical and instrumental reflexes they need when faced with a new score. Once they have grasped the musical theme, they are in a position to give their own interpretation. This apprenticeship also forms the basis of collective playing, through ensemble sight-reading, which requires attentive listening to one's partners. Whether individual or collective, the course emphasises the concepts that are essential to all instrumental playing: intonation, rhythmic precision, nuances, flexibility of tone and the ability to construct a coherent musical phrase from reading.