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…

In 1950, percussionist and pedagogue Paul Price established an accredited collegiate percussion ensemble course at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the first of its kind in the country. In this article, I argue that Price's accreditation of the genre, coupled with his many other entrepreneurial initiatives, was made possible by the…

This article focuses on a particular arena of creative practice: music students' largely sonic experience of Otherness through world music ensemble performance of klezmer (music with its roots in the weddings and other social occasions of mostly Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews in eastern and central Europe). Having briefly introduced klezmer, we…

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected instructional practices at universities around the world, necessitating mostly virtual instruction for safety reasons. Particularly impacted were the performing arts, which often rely on live, in-person interaction. In the field of music, professors of conducting were forced to reconsider their teaching…

The Alexander Technique is a method that emerged as a result of Actor Frederick Matthias Alexander's work on himself to solve the problems he had with his voice during his performance. This technique, which was effective for himself, rapidly became widespread because it was tried by different people over time and positive results were obtained.…

The American Brass Band Movement (1835-1892) is an important period within music history that is disproportionally and inadequately taught in collegiate music history classrooms. By learning about America's band history and by performing in these ensembles, future music educators will be able to have a more well-rounded understanding of the…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to investigate engagement in the collegiate concert band setting. Research questions were: (1) How do collegiate band students describe their engagement in large ensemble rehearsals? (2) How do collegiate band directors describe engagement in large ensemble rehearsals? and (3) What does rehearsal…

This article explores the life histories of virtuoso classical music soloists with particular reference to conservatoire provision. Detailed life-history interviews were conducted with six virtuosi between May 2018 and January 2019. These participants were three singers, two cellists and a concert pianist. Resultant qualitative data were stored in…

The curriculum used in amateur and professional piano education is shaped according to the physical and mental state of the students. Easy access to piano literature that can be used in case of one hand and/or one arm disability is important in terms of contributing to the students and piano instructors. For this reason, it is aimed to determine…

Many professional musicians would describe their careers as somewhat different to the careers they imagined when they were students. This study sought to understand the relationships between musicians' higher music education experiences and their professional work, and to expose the adaptive strategies they employ to sustain their work. The…

This article reports on a pilot project exploring the viability of a teaching-through-playing approach in chamber music instruction in higher music education. Literature suggests that teaching traditions such as the one-to-one setting need renewal, and socio-cultural theories of learning propose that collaboration and participation are a way…

Self-observation has proven to be a powerful medium for personal and professional growth and development. This research makes use of self-observation through video to determine the latent structure that underlies the gestures to be learned and mastered by orchestra conducting students. Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA) techniques have been…

Generally, one-to-one music lessons in tertiary settings are delivered by practicing professional musicians. While contemporary musicians draw upon a broad foundation of musical skills, they tend to develop highly specialized skills in a narrow area of performance. This may not be ideal for the one-to-one teaching studio, a situation that calls…

Graduate wind conducting programs prepare students to teach collegiate band and conducting techniques through musical curricular content and apprenticeship in administrative tasks. Despite their important role, there is little research examining the structure of these programs beyond a few studies of their course requirements. The purpose of this…

Over the past three decades, piano learning has witnessed an upsurge in popularity in China. To examine why, between 2016 and 2018 ethnographic fieldwork was conducted among piano teachers, students, and parents of students. Employing the concept of piano pathway, this article tracks the relationship between piano learning and formal schooling and…