Advanced Musical Performance: Investigations in Higher Education Learning

To reach the highest standards of instrumental performance, several years of sustained and focused learning are required. This requires perseverance, commitment and opportunities to learn and practise, often in a collective musical environment. This book brings together a wide range of enlightening current psychological and educational research to offer deeper insights into the mosaic of factors and related experiences that combine to nurture (and sometimes hinder) advanced musical performance. Each of the book's four sections focus on one aspect of music performance and learning: musics in higher education and beyond; musical journeys and educational reflections; performance learning; and developing expertise and professionalism. Although each chapter within its home section offers a particular focus, there is an underlying conception across all the book’s contents of the achievability of advanced musical performance and of the important nurturing role that higher education can play, particularly if policy and practice are evidence-based and draw on the latest international research findings. The narrative offers an insight into the world of advanced musicians, detailing their learning journeys and the processes involved in their quest for the development of expertise and professionalism. It is the first book of its kind to consider performance learning in higher education across a variety of musical genres, including classical, jazz, popular and folk musics. The editors have invited an international community of leading scholars and performance practitioners to contribute to this publication, which draws on meticulous research and critical practice. This collection is an essential resource for all musicians, educators, researchers and policy makers who share our interest in promoting the development of advanced performance skills and professionalism.

Ioulia Papageorgi is the Director of the University of Nicosia Teaching and Learning Institute (UNTLI) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Nicosia. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol), as well as an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS). She previously held the position of Lecturer and Coordinating Research Officer in the Department of Psychology and Human Development and the Department of Arts and Humanities at the Institute of Education, University of London, and of Associate Lecturer at the Open University (UK). Ioulia has presented her work in many international conferences and seminars and has several publications in a number of peer-reviewed journals and books. Graham Welch holds the Institute of Education, University of London Established Chair of Music Education. He is elected Chair of the internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), Immediate Past President of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and past Co-Chair of the Research Commission of ISME. Publications number over three hundred and embrace musical development and music education, teacher education, the psychology of music, singing and voice science, and music in special education and disability.