Thanks so much for sharing all of your abstracts, it has been really interesting and informative to read through them! Apologies for my delay in posting my own abstract, but I have copied it below:
Expanding the Core of Orchestral Training: Exploring Community Engagement Activities within Conservatoire Training
The classical music field has been undergoing a major paradigm shift in the last few decades, with the pace of transformation accelerating ever faster. Symphony orchestras in particular have faced difficult challenges and as a result, orchestras around the world are adopting new and innovative ways to engage the broader community and remain relevant for current and future audiences. This has largely included vigorous investments in education and community programmes, exploration of new ways of putting on concerts through creative music-making and collaboration, and experimentation through the use of technology.
The changing field has strong implications for musicians, especially aspiring orchestral players and the conservatoires that train them. My research lies within this setting of the conservatoire, with the aim to explore how students and emerging practitioners, particularly those aspiring to include orchestral playing in their career, develop skills, mindset and purpose through involvement in a wider variety of community activities. The focus centres on student experience and the roles of education and community engagement, as well as communication methods, within this.
My research is carried out through qualitative case studies of postgraduate students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Research methods include ethnographic in-depth interviews and close fieldwork observation with participating students, and auto-ethnographic reflection on my own continued involvement in community engagement activities. The collected data will be analysed using an iterative approach, allowing for the analysis to inform continued data collection and fieldwork. As I immerse myself in the world of training students I aspire to gain better understanding into the challenges they face, and so be able to draw implications and potential conclusions on how they may be best prepared for the professional field through community engagement. Ultimately my goal is for this research to refine and deepen understanding into conservatoire training and effective ways to equip students for protean careers given the changing state of the classical music field. I believe my study contributes to gaps that exist in the research knowledge on conservatoires and specifically how higher education can contribute to equipping emerging professionals with the necessary skills of the industry.