This paper offers an invitation to higher music education communities to think differently about the significance of the connections between music and play. We highlight the many texts that articulate these connections and draw together a speculative ontological claim that all musicking is an enactment of play. In other words, we ask how…

Based on interviews with fourteen Finnish women classical music students and graduates from Finnish higher music education institutions, this article sheds light on the under-researched subject of emotional abuse in classical music education. "Emotional abuse" is defined as patterned deliberate non-contact behavior, such as verbal abuse…

Conservatories and orchestras based in the US have attempted to become more diverse by increasing their recruitment of students of color. This approach, however, fails to acknowledge that the aesthetic environments of these institutions, having been designed by and for a White majority, require these students to assimilate into environments that…

The dual aims of this essay are to consider some ways in which school music reproduces neoliberal rationalities and to suggest possibilities whereby playful aspects of music education can open spaces for disruption and resistance. After defining key terms (capital, neoliberalism, rationality, social reproduction, and alienation), patterns of…

This layered autoethnography comprises momentary scenes connected to musical pieces for cello that are engraved in my memory and on the calluses of my fingertips by significant physical, emotional, and motivational experiences that have accompanied me since my youth. My artful methodology invokes truthful memory through sound to compose a…

What happens when a classical music instrument performance course at a Norwegian state university study programme is assessed for quality following a standardized procedure? The article explores frictions and negotiations between managerial quality assurance and classical music performance education in a contextual sense, focusing particularly on…

This article explores student and teacher experiences of bi-musical education at KM Music Conservatory (KM). KM is a higher education institution in Chennai, India, established in 2008 by the internationally renowned film composer, A. R. Rahman. The Conservatory offers various courses, including a Diploma programme validated by Middlesex…

The explosive growth of Venezuela's "El Sistema" is rewriting the agenda of musical education in the West. Many commentators from the world of classical music react to the spectacle of dedicated young colonial musicians playing European masterworks as a kind of "miracle," accepting "Sistema" founder José Antonio…

El Sistema sits somewhere between a social project and a classical music initiative. However, its promise of delivering upward mobility has not been sufficiently examined as a structural phenomenon which dovetails with critical policy issues in taxation, educational provision, human rights, and welfare. This article argues that Sistema-style…

This article asks why classical music in the UK, which is consumed and practiced by the middle and upper classes, is being used as a social action program for working-class children in British music education schemes inspired by El Sistema. Through exploring the discourse of the social benefits of classical music in the late nineteenth century, a…

In his recent monograph, Chris Higgins (2011) offers a remarkably original, thoughtful, and provocative argument for "an ethics of professional practice" for teachers. His study brings together a wealth of ideas and authors not often discussed in relation to each other, and it draws out elusive themes and ideas often overlooked in most…

In her recent work, Green (2001; 2008) builds on the idea that there is a gulf between "real-world music" and classroom music (Ibid., p. 2). One of her main goals seems to be to pave the way for the former in the latter: to make the music in schools more in touch with reality. The learning practices of popular music are taken to bring the needed…

With its focus on reason and science, the 18th century began a history of increased specialization. As a result, professional degrees and certificates eventually came to define and control practices that had once been the domains of amateurs. By the end of the 19th century, many practices of lay enthusiasts had been pushed aside; where they were…

At the turn of the century, there was a widespread perception on the part of pupils, teachers, and policy makers that a "problem with school music" existed, particularly at the secondary level. It was hypothesized that one contributory factor was the perceived authenticity of "school music" in relation to "music outside…