Rethinking Music Performance in European Higher Education Music Institutions (REACT)

Introduction

REACT is a reaction to a current problem arising from the long-established model for teaching music performance in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): musicians are trained for acquiring read-only skills instead of educating them to become creative professionals. HEIs are not helping musicians to meet the challenges of working life. REACT will mobilise a knowledge-creating international cooperative network to develop a new pedagogical model for HEIs – the Artistic Research-Based Learning (AR-BL) model, inspired by the epistemological framework proposed by the project’s leading team.

The novelty of this project resides in shifting the focus from technical skills to material thinking, i.e., a specific mode of thought resulting from how ideas and works shape each other, reconfiguring the established mythopoetic configurations. The AR-BL model aims at encouraging a shift towards developing students’ creativity, proactive critical thinking and reflexive musical practice.

The main objective is to offer alternatives that will link artistic research, artistic training, personal development, and career management. This model will: (i) increase articulation between HEIs and current professional requirements in the field of performance; (ii) promote a teaching/learning environment based on critical self-reflection and wider societal reflexivity beyond the existing practice; (iii) promote awareness that artistic productions involve knowledge production (material thinking) and exploration of means to share this knowledge academically and via practice (artistic research); and (iv) stimulate and exemplify the integration between different fields of artistic expression in the teaching of musical performance.

The implementation of the AR-BL model will not only impact current students and professionals but also aims at having a long-term impact on musical performance teaching practices. Consequently, degree structures and curricula in HEIs, both on a European and wider international scale, are expected to be influenced as well. Using this critical and reflexive approach, based on the aforementioned epistemological framework, the project will pioneer the use of artistic research in music performance teaching and learning practices. Aware of the shifting role of artists and musicians in rapidly changing societies, REACT offers new potential for development in the arts.