Interactive Session 7: Together towards a global and healthier education for musicians

Title

• Together towards a holistic education for healthier musicians: An opportunity to break barriers?

Presenter

• Isabelle Cossette

Description

Most would agree that training an elite performer is an extremely complex and time-consuming process that requires the acquisition of an endless number of skills: from instrumental technique to historical practice through healthy lifestyle, bodily and mental controls, and individual artistic creativity.

In the sport domain, a pathway model for the training of athletes has often been used over the last decades. More recently, such models have come into question as no model seems to fit all. Similarly, the path to reach excellence in music performance is usually not linear.

This interactive session will address questions on the role of our communities in the improvement of musicians’ training in higher education. Topics that will be discussed include:

• Identifying the key elements to reach excellence/full potential
• Defining the most pressing questions to address for the optimization of musicians’ training from the perspective of researchers/students/performers/educators.
• Discussing the advantages of multidisciplinary teams around performers and identifying barriers to this collaborative approach into higher education and research institutions.
• Identifying steps that would facilitate the integration of multidisciplinary/diverse perspectives such as applied performance science to the musicians’ training?

If you are a musician/educator/researcher/student interested in the 21st century musicians’ learning journey, please come and share your ideas!