Rethinking Musical Excellence

A new article is now available as an “online first” publication through the International Journal of Music Education (Sage publications). This article was co-authored with four doctoral students from around the world who participated in one of my online seminars at Bergen Summer Research School during the COVID-19 pandemic—Lu Liu, Sergio Garcia-Cuesta, Laura Chambers and Sergej Tchirkov—and contains some interesting discussion of ways that music programs might be reoriented and even rejuvenated in universities and conservatoires.

  

Link to access article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02557614241281992

 

The authors found that writings on decolonization can stimulate useful reflections and insights regarding issues and strategies for improving higher music education, particularly in terms of its Eurocentric and often excessively competitive emphases. The former is notable when contrasted with departments of language and literature, for instance (in which it is inconceivable that one would only examine western traditions), while the latter becomes obvious when compared with visual arts studies (in which nearly everyone would count as a “composer” if compared with music studies). 

 

In our view, different approaches that are more open to diverse forms of musicianship—whether Indigenous and non-western traditions, folk and popular music and electronic music genres, or studies that place more emphasis on originality with less focus on competition in virtuosic and standardized performances—all promise to strengthen the overall position of music in higher education.  

 

Below is the bibliographic reference and abstract, as well as a link for this article, which is published in an open-access format: 

Liu, L., Garcia-Cuesta, S., Chambers, L., Tchirkov, S. & Hebert, D. G. (2024).  Rethinking ‘musical excellence’ from a decolonial perspective: Disruptive autobiographical experiences among doctoral scholars. International Journal of Music Education. 

  

Link to access article: 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02557614241281992

  

Abstract

This collaborative autoethnography was developed by recent doctoral students in music from Southern Europe, Eurasia, East Asia, and North America, along with a professor based in Northern Europe. Our primary research question is “What can disruptive autobiographical experiences teach us about the implications of the decolonization movement for redefining “musical excellence” in higher music education?” The co-authors interviewed each other for their respective personal narratives on this theme, then collaboratively coded, analyzed and developed their results and interpretations. Four sub-questions served as prompts: (1) What was your gateway into music and how did the music learning-tradition that you were exposed to affect your development as a musician? (2) In what ways was the concept of “musical excellence” a part of your (early) development as a musician? (3) How does the concept of “musical excellence” impact how being an “artist” is defined by you and people around you? (4) How did this perception of “what is an artist” affect your musical path (and even how others perceive your career)? We share our findings and discuss implications in terms of possible innovations to higher music education, definitions of “musical excellence,” approaches to evaluation, and the role of competition in education.

 

Displayed above: Public Domain image of medals from competition