4. Teaching Musical Performance from an Artistic Research-Based Approach

Abstract

This book chapter reports on a pedagogical intervention consisting of a new artistic research-based approach to teaching and learning music performance. Such an approach was offered as an extracurricular course (REACT training school) promoted by a strategic partnership, funded by ERASMUS+, involving 5 European higher music institutions. The chapter is structured in four parts. The first outlines the current paradigm of music performance education in European higher education institutions. This section explores the consequences of the values and expectations established in the context of the nineteenth-century Western Conservatoire model along with a summary of the career demands of professional music performers. From the insights arising from the issues discussed above, connections are drawn with the current state of artistic research in order to launch new pedagogical strategies. In the second part, the implementation of the REACT training school at a Portuguese university is described. Details about topics included in the programme, selection of participants, data collection and data analysis are presented. In the third part, the results of the data analysis are dealt with, considering the students' perspectives regarding their participation and the training school itself. In section 4, the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed, with reference to the state of the art presented in section two, also addressing methodological limitations of the study itself, finally proposing possible directions for future research.