Helen Julia Minors, Stefan Östersjö, Gilvano Dalagna, Jorge Salgado Correia (eds.) (2024) Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education - Exploring the Potential of Artistic Research. Open Book Publishers. <https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0398> 

1. How this book came about

The topic of this very readable anthology is ‘learning [music] which is grounded on artistic research’ (p 308). The texts gathered in this publication are the outcome of the Erasmus+ project REACT - Rethinking Music Performance in European Higher Education Institutions , which ran from 2020 to 2023. 

Artistic Research and Music Education Research had little contact for a long time. The actors in both areas did not seem to talk to each other, perhaps seeing each other as competitors in the fight for funding or, in the worst case, accusing each other of a lack of scholarly seriousness. Although it has been evident for some time that there are overlaps between the two areas, the gap between the respective research approaches was obviously too large to develop any significant synergies or even to enter into dialogue with each other. However, recently this has changed and this is good news.

This recent rapprochement has been triggered by, amongst other things, a change in the position of some research funding providers. Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a project on the topic of Artistic Research (AR) to receive funding from the EU Erasmus+ programme because, as reviewers made clear when rejecting such applications in the past, Erasmus only funded projects that deal with education and did not see research projects falling under this remit. The turning point came in 2020 when, in addition to REACT,  RAPP Lab was approved, introducing an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership project application on the topic of Artistic Research in Higher Music Education (HME).

With Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education - Exploring the Potential of Artistic Research, a comprehensive collection of texts dedicated to this topic is now available. Essentially, the anthology reproduces the contributions to the REACT Symposium, which took place in Piteå in autumn 2022, featuring content from REACT project members and external guest speakers. The publication of just over three hundred pages fulfils the formal role of a final report of the REACT project, but it is important to note that it is more than just an internal project document and there is no need to be familiar with the REACT project to benefit from reading the book. 

2. Structure of the publication

The book is divided into three parts: Part I (pp 9-132) provides an overview of how Artistic Research has developed at higher education institutions in Europe since the implementation of the Bologna Process, how it has been incorporated into curricula and how it has contributed to the innovation of learning and teaching of music performance at these institutions. Part II (pp 133-219) presents some exemplary models of innovative pedagogical approaches that promote student-centred learning and critical reflection and stand therefore in a special proximity to Artistic Research approaches. Part III (pp 221-314) addresses from four different perspectives the challenges and opportunities HME is facing now and may face in the future. 

While Part I of the anthology (‘Artistic Research in Higher Music Education’) outlines a historical and theoretical framework, Part II (‘Novel Approaches to Teaching Interpretation and Performance’) deals with case studies from HME institutions. The third and final part (‘Challenges and Opportunities of Music Performance Education in Society’) goes beyond the institutional horizon and addresses the wider social context in which the topic is, or should be, situated. The book’s structure is logical and clear and allows the reader to jump back and forth between the chapters without losing sight of the bigger picture. The three parts of the anthology are preceded by an introduction in which representatives of the project partners from Aveiro (Gilvano Dalagna, Jorge Salgado Correia) and Piteå (Stefan Östersjö, Helen Julia Minors) describe the context in which the REACT project was planned and carried out. 

3. On ‘Introduction’ and the overall context

Throughout the anthology and underpinned with a stringent and rigorous argumentation, the 1999 Bologna Proclamation is referred to as the key trigger for a development compelling the Higher Music Education Institutions (HMEI) in Europe to academicise their music performance study programmes. As a logical consequence, such a development would almost inevitably lead to the overcoming of the traditional way of passing on knowledge and skills in music and music performance, based on a one-to-one master-apprentice relationship. Characteristic elements of this form of teaching include a preference for intuitive rather than reflective teacher action, a steep hierarchical gradient between master and apprentice which often creates dependencies and a particular emphasis on embodied learning and learning by imitation. For some years now, the term ‘Conservatoire Model’ has become current in the specialist literature to describe this particular learning and teaching environment.1 This term is usually used with derogatory intent, describing an outdated counter-model to an environment based on the ideas of student-centredness and critical thinking. This is also the sense in which the term is used in this publication, in which it plays a key role. The book’s introduction already conclusively explains that the shift from the old to the new model can only succeed if student-centred learning and critical reflection are placed at the centre.  

Not quite as convincing is the justification of a schematic model of learning and teaching music performance which is grounded on artistic research practices: ‘Rather than top-down transmission of knowledge, the aim is to create teaching and learning contexts that enable student and teacher to contextualise, explore, and share artistic research practices in music performance, from within the framework of Higher Music Education.’ (p 2) The activities of exploring, sharing and contextualising AR-based music performance practices are described as complementary and overlapping spheres, the integration of which - according to the authors - is a prerequisite for the successful innovation of AR-informed music performance learning and teaching at HMEIs. It is without doubt appropriate and desirable to put ‘the study of music performance in a wider context’ (p 3), i.e., in immediate interaction with the art world, the labour market and the society as a whole. However, demanding the creation and establishment of a corresponding context as a ‘conditio sine qua non’ for successful AR-based or AR-informed learning and teaching seems counterproductive, and does not do justice to the possible characteristics of projects which put the ‘individual capacities, interests, and inner motivation of the student at the centre’ (ibid). 

At this point, a dilemma in relation to the REACT project becomes obvious, which also comes into play later in the publication. REACT was funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme and not by the EU’s Horizon research programme. Against this background, the postulation of the REACT model of learning and teaching as described above is absolutely legitimate as a political demand (and as such, in line with the objectives of the Erasmus+ programme), but it cannot be justified as a causally logical and methodologically stringent research finding, derived from the study design. It should be noted in that this dilemma also comes to bear in another context later in the book, namely when it comes to the topic of decolonisation and inclusion (decolonisation is understood in a very broad sense, as the elimination of systemic disadvantages, be it due to ethnicity, origin, gender, sexual orientation, social depravation or physical handicap). The need to decolonise HMEIs and to promote inclusion is emphasised several times and is also the subject of a separate chapter in Part III (chapter 12). However, strictly speaking, this is not an inherent part of the research idea, but rather an add-on that the authors see as a political necessity. This can also be seen in a positive light: as an Erasmus+ Cooperation project, REACT had the opportunity to go beyond the limits of a pure research project and has made good use of this opportunity. 

4. On Part I ‘Artistic Research in Higher Music Education’

Stefan Östersjö’s reflections on the topic of Artistic Research in Higher Music Education start with an easily understandable and comprehensive overview of the different aspects, approaches and variants of AR, how these found their way into the HMEIs and how ‘artistic research has become [...] an integrated feature [of European HME], providing novel approaches’ (p 10). The author rightly emphasises the laboratory character of Artistic Research which probably helped a lot to promote and facilitate the acceptance of AR in the performance departments at European HMEIs. This chapter leaves little to be desired, but it is a shortcoming that initiatives and movements from the time before 1990 are not mentioned, specifically those that did not explicitly claim to be AR, but nevertheless prepared the ground for what we understand today as AR, such as Historically Informed Performance practice or the Fluxus movement. 

Experimental approaches to individual practices are at the centre of chapter 2 (‘Experimentation as a Learning Method’) contributed by Fausto Pizzol, who investigates the possibilities of developing a harmonic vocabulary when playing the electric bass, and of chapter 3 by Mikael Bäckman (‘Finding Voice’), who questions how transcription and imitation can form the basis for the development of an individual artistic language. The outcomes for both projects provide, above all, pedagogical findings and insights. Pizzol addresses the pedagogical questions by exploring the border areas between perception psychology, learning theory and artistic experimentation. Although the specific example his investigation is based on is not entirely convincing due to a certain schematic over-moulding of the artistic material, the text does provide a very clear example of the directions in which the repertoire of methods of AR might be fruitfully expanded. Bäckman refers to a similar theoretical framework as Pizzol, but his concluding analysis deals not so much with developing a new repertoire of methods, as with case descriptions of individual learning paths that he observes in his students’ harmonica lessons. The two individual contributions by Pizzol and Bäckman are the only ones in this anthology that are enriched with video material, which is a pity as this great potential remains untapped.

These are framed by collective contributions in which the concepts for integrating AR into music performance teaching at the two leading HEIs in the REACT project (Piteå and Aveiro) are presented and explained (chapters 1 and 4). The birth of Artistic Research from the spirit of the Bologna Declaration, already described in the introduction, is addressed here once again and in detail, looking at the concrete example of Sweden and the specific political conditions there (‘A Swedish Perspective on Artistic Research Practices in First and Second Cycle Education in Music’ by Östersjö, Karl Holmgren and Åsa Unander-Scharin). One of the key questions addressed in this chapter is whether and to what extent students can strengthen their ability to take responsibility for and control their own learning paths (student-centredness, lifelong learning competence) by engaging with AR. To find answers to this question, the authors analyse completed bachelor’s and masters’ theses from their own field of work. The results of this small-scale qualitative study essentially confirm the authors’ assumptions, but also show how important it is to renew and improve curricula by adding elements of exploratory openness, which is seen as characteristic of research in general and AR in particular. As a side effect, the study also provides clues as to what might constitute successful and good AR, something that is not set normatively in Sweden, but is treated descriptively with respect for the inherent dynamics of individual projects. This is in line with the general description of an educational shift from teacher-driven to student-centred higher music performance education (p 13), which runs through the chapter. The authors themselves address the fact that at least as many new questions are raised here as old questions are answered and also accurately name the most important desiderata, which undoubtedly offer plenty of material for future research projects (the lack of representative data; the need to expand the repertoire of methods; the specific role of artistic experimentation to further develop AR and ‘the relationship between the written text and the artistic artefacts’ in AR, p 42).

The Portuguese model (addressed by Dalagna, Correia, Clarissa Foletto and Ioulia Papageorgi in chapter 4, and entitled ‘Teaching Musical Performance from an Artistic Research-Based Approach: Reporting on a Pedagogical Intervention in Portugal’), gives the impression of having emerged less as a fulfilment of governmental requirements than from the own initiative of one institution or even just a few teachers at a HMEI. It is essentially in line with the Swedish approach in terms of content, but takes its starting point in a predetermined educational intervention that was purposefully designed to test an AR-based approach to learning and teaching music performance. When it comes to the question of what criteria were used to reach this decision, we only learn that ‘critical thinking and creativity’ played a decisive role and that the intention was to create a counter-model to the traditional Conservatoire Model in the abovementioned understanding. Despite this lack of detail, we learn that the suggested alternative model was successful, at least in the eyes of the participating students. On the basis of a self-evaluation derived from a simple trial-and-error exercise, students felt obviously and almost unanimously better prepared for the professional demands of the 21st century. Moreover, they saw themselves taken seriously as critically thinking actors on a self-determined learning path.

5. On Part II ‘Novel Approaches to Teaching Interpretation and Performance’

Part II picks up on the ideas developed in the first part through juxtaposing the theoretical framework presented there with four concrete case studies from teaching practice. An additional aspect of the differentiation of this model arises from the fact that the examples presented this time do not come from Sweden and Portugal, but from Norway and the UK. In this part, including the chapters 5 to 8, educational approaches are presented that combine intuitive and theoretical settings. On the one hand, improvisation, interpretation and peer-to-peer learning in the ensemble are highlighted as catalytic building blocks for the development of an individual artistic profile. On the other, integrative forms of ‘out-of-the-box’ learning are also favoured in the teaching, such as the close interweaving of music theory knowledge and practical performance skills, or the explorative investigation of different musical cultures and traditions. The innovative character of all these approaches is emphasised, which are intended to show ‘how artistic research-based learning can be adapted and explored in different pedagogical settings - those in which the teacher is looking beyond the master-apprentice approach’ (p 134). 

Robert Sholl (chapter 5, ‘Artistic Practice as Embodied Learning: Reconnecting Pedagogy, Improvisation, and Composition’) points to the potential of AR in the context of music analysis. Sholl describes traditional music analysis (particularly with regard to the specialist debate in the USA) as a discipline that suffers from the ‘schism between theory as a discipline and theory as a necessary precursor and as complementary to practice’ (p 136). Artistic research, according to Sholl, can help to mitigate or even resolve this antagonism by placing the performer in the dual role of researcher and practitioner, thus rendering the reference point of the ‘musical work’ as an object of research obsolete. Sholl exemplifies his idea by comparing several historical recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations and various texts analysing the piece. In this context, AR slips into the role of providing additional information, a generator of previously neglected knowledge and a catalyst for embodied learning. This is another approach that is undoubtedly worth pursuing further.

The following chapter by Jacob Thompson-Bell entitled ‘Working Together Well: Amplifying Group Agency and Motivation in Higher Music Education’ argues that group processes in the interplay between individual self-determination and collectively inspired peer-to-peer motivation can also be considered student-centred. The problem here is that the term SCLE (Student-centred learning environment) is the core point of reference for the argumentation, but remains vague in terms of content. In academic discourse, SCL is an undefined generic term that encompasses various learning theory, epistemological and psychological approaches, some of which are also inspired by biology and social studies. Thompson-Bell’s research interest is commendable (to find out how students’ ‘individual study goals and motivations are modulated by the co-presence of their peers, and vice versa’, p 166), but as he fails to locate his project against the backdrop of the diverse, complex and fragmented debate around SCL, the insights gained in the study remain partly superficial and anecdotal. However, it can be concluded that the issue raised deserves to be examined in greater depth, from the perspective of different disciplines and using different methods. 

Mariam Kharatyan (chapter 7, 'Score-Based Learning and Improvisation in Classical Music Performance') investigates the classical music performance study programmes and how these are positioned in the field of tension between ‘Werktreue’ and improvisation. She begins by tracing, in a rather conventional musicological manner, how the role and task of the performer (as a performing artist who reproduces a musical text created by a composer) has changed over time. Things get exciting as soon as the author takes on compositions, in this specific case music inspired by local folk music traditions. She reflects on the work of the Armenian composers Aram Khatchaturian and Soghomon Soghomonian (alias Komitas), and interprets their work as transcribed improvisations. Her observation that these ‘scores in European music notation appeared as if they were an attempt at poor translations of what, in live performance, the music could sound like’ (p 182) forms the starting point of an AR project in which she investigates and tests with students the extent to which a freer approach to musical notation and the use of elements of improvisation would strengthen the student’s ‘connections to the music as performed, and help them to master complex technical, musical, and aspects related to the development of their instruments/voice.’ (p 190).

Finally, the last contribution in Part II (chapter 8, ‘Intercultural Musicking: Reflection in, on, and for Situated Klezmer Ensemble Performance’ by Richard Fay, Daniel J. Mawson and Nahielly Palacios) deals with music learning through reflective and collective performance practices and ‘intercultural musicking’. Reference is made here to the experiences of a specific study programme at the University of Manchester, the ‘Klezmer Ensemble Performance (KEP)’ module. The KEP module has been offered as an elective course for over ten years and is primarily aimed at students studying what is commonly termed ‘Western’ music (theory or performance). The approach to klezmer takes place as ‘historically-, culturally-, and functionally-informed understandings of klezmer’s complexities’ (p 198) and aims to provide students with experience in dealing with traditions of performance, mediation and social embedding of music, which are ‘other than Western Classical’ (p 198). The chapter describes a pedagogical project launched with the aim of broadening horizons (‘We understand the KEP module to be less a meeting place for two static music cultures, and more a space for developing transmusicality’, p 200). This project is not an AR project in the proper sense, nor does it use methods that could be assigned to AR. However, the chapter shows how much the fields of Music Education Research and Artistic Research are moving towards each other, and will most probably form overlapping fields at some point. Other scholarly fields of reference in this contribution are constructivism and the philosophy of practice, which are among others represented by extensive quotes from publications by Donald A. Schön2, whose reflection-in-action theorem was originally not meant to describe artistic processes, but rather processes of reflection as they arise within organisational and social structures. Nevertheless, the convergence of different fields of research initiated in this chapter is remarkable because something is developing here that could also assign AR a special role in a larger context: a new form of knowledge acquisition that, in its epistemic uniqueness and irreplaceability, helps to close gaps when it comes to producing new knowledge that reaches far beyond the field of artistic practice.  

6. On Part III ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Music Performance Education in Society’

Part III of the publication opens up a view not only into the future but also beyond the boundaries of the discipline(s). Its first four chapters can, roughly speaking, be assigned to two major subject areas. Firstly, the topic of ‘Innovation of study programmes and curricula’ (chapters 9 and 10), and secondly the topic of ‘Music performance in intercultural contexts’ (chapters 11 and 12). It should be emphasised that the editors of the book also succeed with Part III in bringing together the findings from Parts I and II and making their significance for future strategies for developing higher music education sector visible.

In ‘Introduction to Part III’, Helen Julia Minors underlines how important a binding and shared terminology is in order to come closer to a clarification of the relevant questions (p 222). However, the very first chapter of this part, entitled ‘The Musical Object in Deep Learning’, remains confusing and unclear, at least with regard to terminological issues, as it refers to an understanding of the term ‘deep learning’ that is hardly known outside the Nordic countries. Odd Torleiv Furnes refers to a paper from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and a related Swedish research project from the 1970s, in which dybdelæring (which is the literal translation of deep learning) is described as a learning strategy which, in contrast to learning aimed at the accumulation of knowledge, is aimed at ‘not only remembering information, but also contextualising the acquired knowledge and applying it to new situations’.3 This is confusing insofar as the term deep learning has experienced a veritable boom in recent years, especially in the context of machine learning and artificial intelligence, where it is understood as a subgroup of algorithm-controlled processes that are at least partially structured on the model of neural networks. The adjective ‘deep’ refers here to the use of multiple layers in the network.4 While Furnes uses and discusses the term in the context of an understanding of the term shaped by educational science, learning theory, cognitive psychology and the social sciences, in the current scholarly debate it is almost exclusively associated with disciplines such as computer science and neuroscience. One would have hoped that this tension in the interpretation of the term be addressed and discussed right at the beginning of the paper. The fact that after twenty pages of text, the role of the term deep learning in the context of machine learning and AI is suddenly mentioned (without going into this in more detail afterwards) makes things even more confusing. This is a pity, because the text is otherwise very meritorious and a profitable read.

The division presented in this chapter between the ontological and epistemological aspects of musical meaning is logically justified and systematically worked through. The author makes it clear that he sees the state of being of music as a social fact in the sense of Leonard B. Meyer, Christopher Small and the representatives of the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. However, he also distances himself from positions according to which neither music as a work nor the aesthetic attention to the sounding object have any relevance for the meaning of music (p 239), as for example advocated by David J. Elliott and Marissa Silverman5. One of the many strengths of this text is the rehabilitation of the emotional mechanisms for the perception and meaning of music, based on the logical connection of the ontological discussion with findings from biology and perception psychology. The author actually succeeds in lowering ‘barriers between critical analysis and performance’ (p 245). In this sense, the text makes an important contribution to the epistemological self-assertion of an ongoing debate within the AR community, but also to the music education debate about what is known in the USA as ‘Philosophy of Music Education’6. That is why the chapter fulfils at the end its self-imposed claim to ‘deepen our conceptual understanding, aesthetic awareness, and expressive abilities [and thus to] provide the foundation for lifelong learning for students, artists, researchers and teachers facing both known and unknown challenges throughout the twenty-first century’ (p 247). However, it remains to be seen whether the author has done himself a favour by bringing the term deep learning into play in this context. 

The second chapter in this part also comes from Norway. Randi Margrethe Eidsaa and Mariam Kharatyan present a qualitative study entitled ‘Rethinking Music Performance Education Through the Lens of Today’s Society’, which uses two exemplary curricula and interviews with students to examine the extent to which current curricula are suitable for enabling students to become independent and socially responsible musicians. The starting point is the assumption that ‘contemporary skills as a professional musician’ encompasses a much broader range of abilities and skills than the traditional Conservatoire Model provides (p 254), an assumption which seems meanwhile undisputed even at the HMEIs. The results of Eidsaa and Kharatyan’s study can be summarised as follows: In order to appropriately prepare students for a labour market under constant change, they must be introduced to cross-disciplinary practices and critical thinking. More generally, new study programmes should strengthen a holistic approach to learning. This rather abstract and theoretical insight is supported by the outcomes of a project in which music students were given the task of collectively creating a music performance for a photo exhibition with large-format images of insects, and present this to a kindergarten audience. The experiences the students had in this project were again collected and documented in the form of semi-structured open interviews. Almost all of the students felt triggered by the project task to develop new skills, but they felt also pushed into becoming more aware of the social and communicative context in which they make music. The authors therefore demand that study courses which give the students the opportunity to develop the abovementioned skills and competencies should be incorporated into the curricula. Again, this project is not AR itself, but supports the idea of ​​the reflective musician, which is also one of the core ideas of AR.

In the following chapter (chapter 11, ‘Experience, Understanding and Intercultural Competence: The Ethno Programme’ by Sarah-Jane Gibson), the author builds on the theses presented by Eidsaa and Kharatyan and specifies the needs and possibilities for broadening students’ horizons. Using the example of the competence of students to deal with so-called ‘ethno’ music or world music, the starting point for her considerations is a quote from Robert Aman: ‘It is vital that we approach intercultural engagement in such a way that we critically reflect on our epistemological understanding of music-making and the sociological effects of engaging with cultures different to our own.’7 In this case too, a specific student project (‘Ethno’ - a 10 day residential gathering of young musicians to teach one another songs from their folk music traditions) provides concrete insights from which hands-on measures and methods are derived that help students to expand their pedagogical and musical repertoire, arouse curiosity and strengthen their ability to reflect. 

Chapter 12, ‘Employability Skills within an Inclusive Undergraduate and Postgraduate Performance Curriculum in the UK’ by Helen Julia Minors opens up the perspective a little more broadly by asking on the one hand how students can be better equipped with employability skills, and on the other hand how degree programs and curricula can be made not only more inter-cultural, but also more inclusive. In this sense, this chapter can be seen as an example of the theses presented by Eidsaa and Kharatyan. The author points out the tension that exists between the efforts ‘to expand genres, styles, and multiple literacies’ and the challenges of ‘how to do so within a single degree’ (p 292). As a solution, Minors suggests to ‘enable students to develop their own approaches, their own specialisms, and, therefore, as academics, we must build into programs the ability for students to make their own choice’ (ibid). Without saying this specifically, Helen Julia Minors provides a further justification for the need to strengthen reflective skills and experience and knowledge in the field of AR as a prerequisite for making students and graduates fit for the job market of the 21th century.

7. Conclusion and summing up

In chapter 13 (‘Conclusion: Probing, Positioning, (Re)Acting’, which formally gives the impression of belonging to Part III, but actually refers to the entire anthology, Östersjö and Minors ask what the insights and findings from this publication mean for a future in which ‘a student-centred pedagogy - one which embeds employability skills, to ensure students have agency within and through their own learning’ (p 307) will have replaced ‘skill acquisition in the traditional hierarchical European model of master-apprentice?’ (ibid.) Östersjö and Minors emphasise once again that they consider an approach grounded on AR a key prerequisite to innovate learning and teaching at HMEIs, to strengthen decolonisation and to promote student-centredness. However, they are also aware that AR cannot solve all problems, but rather provide the key to open the door to something that lies beyond. This is not just about deepening students’ ability to reflect, but also about expanding the methodological and epistemic repertoire that makes this possible, such as ‘the use of audio and video recording’ which ‘enables both reflective practices as well as intersubjective learning,’ (p 309). The authors therefore conclude: ‘Rather than merely integrating a research perspective in our teaching practices, artistic research offers approaches for how to integrate a more diverse curriculum into the individual path each student develops across his or her studies.’ (p 312) 

Summing up this review, it can be said that Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education - Exploring the Potential of Artistic Research is an inspiring read, at least for anyone who is interested in leading HME into the future, with a concept that fits to the needs of the 21st century music world and labour market. The authors are courageous enough to experiment, explore and sound out the scope and limits of their own research concepts. The book has strengths and weaknesses, but above all it contains a wealth of food for thought and stimulates the development of the HME sector. Some things are not yet fully developed, some seem too black and white. It is, for example, regrettable that the Conservatoire Model or master-apprentice model, despite all justified criticism, are only seen as counter-models and bogeymen, but the question is never asked to what extent these models might also be capable of innovation on their own. But it would be wrong to give all of this a negative connotation. The great merit of this publication is to show a way to the place where AR on the one hand and Music Education and Music Educational Research on the other cannot only meet, but also develop synergies.

References:

Aman, Robert (2019). Other Knowledges, Other Interculturalities: The Colonial Difference in Intercultural Dialogue. In:  Unsettling Eurocentrism in the Westernised University, ed. by Julie Cupples and Ramón Grosfoguel, Oxford: Routledge, pp. 171–86.

Bishop, Christopher M. & Bishop, Hugh (2024). Deep learning: foundations and concepts. Springer.

Elliott, David J. & Silverman, Marissa (2005), Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education, 2nd edition Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Frith, Simon (1999). Advancing cultural studies (or keeping the fly in the ointment). In Fornäs, Johan (Ed.). Advancing Cultural Studies. Report from an International Workshop. Stockholm University/ Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, pp 19-27. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:621469/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Gies, Stefan (2023). The birth of the Oslo Conservatoire out of the spirit of the master-apprentice model. In Ø. Varkøy, E. M. Stabell & B. Utne-Reitan (Eds.), Høyere musikkutdanning: Historiske perspektiver, Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk, pp. 15–37. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.199.ch2   License: CC-BY 4.0

Jorgensen, Estelle R. & Yob, Iris M. (2023). Editorial Reflections on Philosophizing in Music Education. In: Philosophy of Music Education Review 31 (2):109-120.

Marton, Ference & Säljö, Roger (1976). On qualitative differences in learning: I-Outcome and process. British journal of educational psychology, 46(1), 4-11.

Meyer, Leonard B. (1956). Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Schön, Donald A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Routledge.

Schön, Donald A. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Small, Christopher (1998). Musicking - The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Hanover: University Press of New England.

Biography

Born and brought up in south-west Germany, Stefan Gies studied viola, composition, musicology and music education in Freiburg. His career as a performing musician includes chamber and orchestra music, but also rock and jazz. He has worked as a music teacher and holds a doctorate in musicology. Stefan researches and publishes on topics such as philosophy of music education and the history and constitution of institutions. 

Stefan was a professor, dean and rector at Musikhochschulen in Germany for more than 25 years before taking the position as Chief Executive of the Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC) in 2015. He retired in 2024, but is still active as an AEC Senior Advisor and a member of numerous boards and committees at national and international level, including as a board member of Culture Action Europe.

• 1see Stefan Gies (2023). The birth of the Oslo Conservatoire out of the spirit of the master-apprentice model. In Ø. Varkøy, E. M. Stabell & B. Utne-Reitan (Eds.), Høyere musikkutdanning: Historiske perspektiver, p 16.
• 2Donald A. Schön (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Routledge; Donald A. Schön (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• 3see Ference Marton & Roger Säljö (1976). On qualitative differences in learning: I-Outcome and process. British journal of educational psychology, 46(1), 4-11).
• 4see Christopher M. Bishop & Hugh Bishop (2024). Deep learning: foundations and concepts. Springer.
• 5David J. Elliott & Marissa Silverman (2005), Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education, 2nd edition Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• 6ibid; Estelle R. Jorgensen & Iris M. Yob (2023). Editorial Reflections on Philosophizing in Music Education. In: Philosophy of Music Education Review 31 (2):109-120.
• 7Robert Aman (2019). Other Knowledges, Other Interculturalities: The Colonial Difference in Intercultural Dialogue. In: Unsettling Eurocentrism in the Westernised University, ed. by Julie Cupples and Ramón Grosfoguel, Oxford: Routledge, pp. 171–86.