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Facing the Music – challenges and changes

This field report examines initiatives in music lifelong learning through the research network Lifelong Learning in Music (LLM) of the Prince Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands. LLM collaborates with other schools on various projects. As well, there is an innovative masters programme ‘New audiences and innovative practices’ with a variety of partners.

Learning together

n research (2010-2012) conducted by the research group Lifelong Learning in Music into instrumental lessons for elderly learners, a ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP; Wenger & Lave) was set up in which instrumental music teachers exchanged expertise and reflected together on their actions in lessons with elderly pupils. Meetings of the CoP centred on the exchange and development of knowledge. In 2012-2013 a follow-up study was conducted which looked into the transfer and development of knowledge within this CoP. Central in this follow-up study were the questions: “What learning takes place in the CoP?” and “Can collaborative learning contribute to the professional development of teachers?”

Sociale effecten van Music Matters

Eindrapportage van een onderzoek naar de effecten van Stichting Music Matters, in 2007 opgestart om de actieve muziekbeoefening van de Rotterdamse jeugd te stimuleren. Aspecten die in dit onderzoek aan de orde kwamen waren: bereik en typering doelgroep, sociale effecten, muziekeducatieve effecten en de leereffecten.

While the music lasts

This book has been written for musicians who want to engage with audiences beyond the concert hall and other traditional venues. The study is equally worthwhile for conservatoires and music academies aiming to change the increasingly unrealistic goal of training young musicians solely for the stage. When taking the changing music profession and its market opportunities seriously, higher music education institutions can become aware of creative opportunities for establishing professional music practices in areas in society that are remote from concert halls and big festivals, from public media and stardom, and instead look for settings which reach out to various kinds of audiences. This does not mean, of course, that the results presented here wish to diminish the wonderful gift of being an accomplished soloist or chamber musician, but they would like to show that the role of music can be exhaustive, where artistic connection can bring about strong communication between people. Music can make a difference and be deeply influential, especially in social fields of illness and suffering, weakness and depression. ‘Music and dementia’ is the challenging topic of this book. It is not about educational suggestions to care staff to sing well-known children's songs in care homes for residents with dementia, just to lift the mood. Through engaging in music as a participatory process, its goal is to make the person behind the dementia visible again. The project presented in this study not only shows that this idea can be realised for people with dementia and their caregivers, but it has also opened up learning processes for the musicians involved which nobody would have expected before, nurturing their professional lives and development. The project has changed their understanding of the place of music in people’s lives; it has touched their personality and stimulated deep reflections about their identity. This positive effect should benefit young musicians in their music education. However, musicians are not the only target group. The discoveries of the study are also helpful and inspiring for caregivers of people with dementia and for families of a loved one living with dementia. The book explores the interaction between music and dementia through the stories of people who have been working closely together: three musicians, eight women living with dementia, five caregivers, a staff development practitioner, a project coordinator and three scientific observers. The result is a book in which all of them have participated in their own way. It consists of field observations, reflective journals, conversations, interviews and careful scientific analyses. If it can be read by many people at a profit, the project has worked. There will be, in the words of Clifford Geertz, a 'thick description' of a new friendship between music and dementia, a story about a fascinating practice that will stimulate and bolster committed people.

Community music through authentic engagement

Community music in cultural policy

Community Music presents a contested field. Cultural policy has had a hard time dealing with community music because aesthetic intentions, social objectives and economic motivations may all play a role for actors and sometimes clash. This chapter provides a scheme of the basic tensions inherent to community music in the cultural policy fields which can form the basis for ‘negotiations’ between actors. The scheme is based upon the pragmatic sociology of Boltanski and Thévenot who provide a grid of sometimes conflicting and sometimes aligning values that can be present in any social situation. Their grid will be applied to the practice of community music in an effort to provide insight into the intricacies of cultural policies regarding this particular form of music as well as into the practicalities of the practice of community musicians working in a field in which cultural policy making plays an often vital role.