In this article I will address the changes and innovations in the music profession in Europe which are faced by our students and graduates, as well as new developments in their music careers. We will look into the question of what musicians’ changing needs are and will then show how conservatoires in Europe respond to them. Consequently the various roles that musicians have within their changing career patterns and the profession will be addressed and an example will be given through the description of an emerging career type, that of the (performing and educating) musician who is engaged with new audiences in various social contexts, in other venues than the traditional concert venues. This will be followed by an exploration of the joint master programme New Audiences and Innovative Practice, which has been developed with a number of music academies in Europe and the USA and in which this particular type of musician and practice are central. The article will then finish by exploring the interconnection between the performing and educational roles of today’s musicians, the question of how these two inform each other and how this can lead to the strengthening of musicians’ learning processes. Lastly I will reflect on what these developments mean for curricula in the music academy.
The present study presents a process evaluation of a performance psychology intervention for transitioning elite and elite musicians. The goal of the intervention was to provide participants with an amalgamation of evidence-informed principles, aimed to improve their quality of practice and performance preparation. The intervention consisted of an educational session followed by four workshops. In total, eight transitioning elite and seven elite musicians participated. Process measures included quantitative and qualitative workshop evaluations, monitoring logs, and semi-structured interviews. Overall, the intervention was evaluated positively by the participants. However, differences were present between the groups, with the elite musicians typically evaluating the intervention more favorably compared to the transitioning elites. Specific positive outcomes included an increased awareness and re-examining of current practice strategies, more structured and goal-directed practice, increased practice efficiency and focus, a more proactive approach to performances, and increased attention for the physical aspects of playing. Moreover, a number of contextual considerations and implementation challenges became evident. Important implications for performance psychology interventions and practitioners in music are discussed.
This paper will explore types of learning, which takes place when musicians work in situations where they have to connect to community contexts.It will first address musicians’ changing professional roles in the changing sociocultural landscape and the need for lifelong learning and emergence of life wide learning which this brings about. It will then go into the rise of the ‘community musician’ and the leadership this requires to exercise, illuminated through an exampleof musicians working with people living with dementia and their care staff.Based on this example perspectives of these musicians’ learning are discussed, where especially transformative learning, where the musician needs to change her frame of reference (Mezirow) and transitional learning, brought about by small changes in musicians’ life world and biography, seem at stake.Keynote address: Royal College of Music in Stockholm: symposium titled: Students' ownership of learning: a meeting place for teachers and students in higher music education,15-17 September 2010
Students in Higher Music Education (HME) are not facilitated to develop both their artistic and academic musical competences. Conservatoires (professional education, or ‘HBO’) traditionally foster the development of musical craftsmanship, while university musicology departments (academic education, or ‘WO’) promote broader perspectives on music’s place in society. All the while, music professionals are increasingly required to combine musical and scholarly knowledge. Indeed, musicianship is more than performance, and musicology more than reflection—a robust musical practice requires people who are versed in both domains. It’s time our education mirrors this blended profession. This proposal entails collaborative projects between a conservatory and a university in two cities where musical performance and musicology equally thrive: Amsterdam (Conservatory and University of Amsterdam) and Utrecht (HKU Utrechts Conservatorium and Utrecht University). Each project will pilot a joint program of study, combining existing modules with newly developed ones. The feasibility of joint degrees will be explored: a combined bachelor’s degree in Amsterdam; and a combined master’s degree in Utrecht. The full innovation process will be translated to a transferable infrastructural model. For 125 students it will fuse praxis-based musical knowledge and skills, practice-led research and academic training. Beyond this, the partners will also use the Comenius funds as a springboard for collaboration between the two cities to enrich their respective BA and MA programs. In the end, the programme will diversify the educational possibilities for students of music in the Netherlands, and thereby increase their professional opportunities in today’s job market.
Ballet en moderne dans zijn een vorm van topsport. De druk op dansers is enorm. Lange en intensieve werkdagen, veel reizen en verschillende werkplekken maken het lastig om lichaam en geest goed te verzorgen. Hierdoor liggen blessures en mentale klachten op de loer. Nederlandse dansgezelschappen willen meer aandacht gaan besteden aan preventieve maatregelen om fysieke en mentale problemen bij hun dansers te voorkomen. Het ontbreekt hen echter aan kennis en kunde om dit innovatieve vraagstuk op te kunnen pakken. Het Nationale Ballet en het Scapino Ballet hebben het lectoraat Performing Arts Medicine van Codarts (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Rotterdam) benaderd om antwoord te krijgen op de vraag hoe dansers op de hoogste podia, op gezonde wijze, hun beste performance kunnen laten zien. Gezamenlijk is deze praktijkvraag omgevormd naar drie onderzoeksdoelstellingen: 1. Opstellen van meetinstrumenten om de fysieke en mentale gezondheid van dansers te screenen en te monitoren; 2. Ontwerpen van een web-based systeem dat automatisch en real-time informatie uit de ontwikkelde meetinstrumenten kan inlezen, analyseren en interpreteren; 3. Ontwikkelen van een Fit to Perform protocol dat aanbevelingen geeft ten aanzien van het verbeteren van de fysieke en mentale gesteldheid van de danser. Het consortium bestaat uit de volgende organisaties: - Praktijkgerichte onderzoeksinstellingen: Codarts Rotterdam en Hogeschool van Amsterdam; - Universiteiten: ErasmusMC, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven en Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; - Praktijkinstellingen: Het Nationale Ballet en het Scapino Ballet; - Overige instellingen: het Nederlands Paramedisch Instituut (NPi) en het Nationale Centrum Performing Arts (NCPA). Bij de samenstelling van het consortium is gekozen voor een goede mix tussen praktijkorganisaties, onderzoeksinstituten en onderwijsinstellingen. Daarnaast is er sprake van cross-sectorale samenwerking doordat kennis vanuit de podiumkunsten, sport, gezondheidszorg, onderwijs en technologie met elkaar verbonden wordt.
expressiveness, performance, musicians, skills, educationUsing the genre of Improvisational theatre as a basis, my research aims to design and develop instructional strategies that would help students enhance their expressive skills and achieve the flexibility to adapt their motor behavior to the musical piece. Embodying diverse characters and physicalities, as well as affective states or fictional realities through improv theatre exercises should enable them to expand their expressive range and, therefore, better convey their interpretation to their audience. Through this process, this study also seeks to gain an understanding of the effect this type of training may have on musicians' performance experience, as well as its implications in other areas of their development.