Abstract
AbstractHigher music education (HME) in Europe is multifaceted due to the great variety of legal frameworks, conservatory histories and practices. However, following the Bologna declaration in 1999, traditional conservatories are gradually transforming into research-based institutions, which means combining advanced performer training with artistic research. After a background on academisation in the higher education of classical, professional musicians, this article reports on a Swedish case study of meanings assigned to academisation in HME. Findings show that it is defined and justified as a quality development project, which requires adaptation and also gives opportunities for further development. Issues of agency in HME are discussed.
Highlights
Introduction: music conservatoires and universities as merging institutional practices? A decade ago, Schippers (2007) pictured the relationship between music conservatoires and universities as an arranged marriage, but as a win-win coalition that provides the possibilities of research programmes within the context of higher music education that are not at the margin, but at the core of musical life in an academic context, with pro-active links to students, staff, management, other faculties and the outside world through curriculum development, creative practice, community activities and performance. (p. 7)
In 2009, after depicting the European situation with its great diversity concerning the inclusion of research activities in institutions of higher music education (HME), Harald Jørgensen posed the question: ‘Is it possible to combine research and artistic activity in a third form of activity, where research and artistic activity are related and influence each other and develop a sort of knowledge that is unavailable by the two separate activities?’ (p. 94)
HME practice? On the basis of a case study of Swedish HME, our overarching aim in this article is to discuss academisation, artistic research and the training of tomorrow’s professional, classical musicians, departing from the question ‘What meanings are assigned to academisation in HME?’
Summary
Since the Bologna declaration in 1999, a harmonisation of the European educational system is ongoing, in order to facilitate student mobility and assessment procedures. Cross-institutional, future-oriented initiatives aiming at articulating strategies and methods for learning and creating music in HME have been taken across Europe, for example, The Reflective Conservatoire (Gaunt, 2016), Innovative Conservatoire, ICON (Duffy, 2016), Students’ Ownership of Learning, SOL (Hultberg, 2010) and Teachers’ Voices (Johansson, 2013) Centres such as Centre for Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) in Norway and New Audiences and Innovative Practices (NAIP) in Holland conduct practice-based investigations of the music profession. The present study of Swedish HME should be seen in the context of the multifaceted picture of academisation in European HMEIs and the efforts made across the continent to achieve ‘the integration of practice and research into the structure of the institution itself’
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