Pilot Year news from the partner institutions
Evaluation Pilot year 2008-09
Guildhall School of Music & Drama (UK)
During the academic year of 08-09 the Guildhall School of Music & Drama has piloted three of the compulsory modules of the Joint Master: Leading & Guiding, Action Research and Project Management & Entrepreneurship. A mixture of postgraduate students, graduates and members of staff took part in the pilot year.
Under the leadership of greatly experienced course tutors Paul Griffiths and Sigrun Saevarsdottir-Griffiths the Leading & Guiding sessions focussed on the preparation and execution of an exciting educational project, where pupils of four London based primary schools and their local secondary school worked together on the composition and performance of a musical piece. The project was artistically themed around Brian Wilson’s album ‘Smile’. Each school had a specific musical and non-musical brief, which they worked on for five weeks with a team of Guildhall School students. All schools came together for one rehearsal on the day before the performance where the pieces were placed together into one extensive piece of music.
Together with the Guildhall School, external partner Globetown Learning Community (former Action Zone) took the lead in the organisation of the project. A lot of praise has been given to the high level of performance of the final concert during which all schools played and sang together as well as had their solo moments.
Guided by course tutor Helena Gaunt, a group of Action Research students has undertaken small individual pieces of research relating closely to their own practice, and often taking place through their own practice. Some examples of the research plans are: exploring the harmonium as an instrument which is used across a number of different musical cultures, and how it may be used in a collaborative context; exploring the theatrical artistic potential of the double bass on stage; exploring the impact of different warm-up exercises within the context of creative music workshops.
During the Project Management classes course tutor Lucy Hunt has taught the pilot year students the several phases and practical issues that arise when planning and executing an own artistic project. Each student has worked on an individual project plan and has explored what challenges s/he might come across when a project plan is turned into reality. Exchange tutor Marc van Roon of the Prince Claus Conservatoire has contributed to the course with a number of exciting seminars, as have several other stimulating speakers from the UK.
The students and course tutors have been asked to fill in the relevant questionnaires that the QA working group has developed, to evaluate the Quality Assurance system of the Joint Master’s course. A lot of positive feedback has been given by the students, and the course tutors are looking forward to the start of the programme.
Prince Claus Conservatoire (NL)
Kick Off
The first semester of the pilot year started already before the summer with a kick off meeting on 26 and 27 June 2008. Present were the teachers (Guy Wood, Philip Curtis, Michael Moore, guest teacher Renee Jonker and Marc van Roon), and four pilot master students. The Creative Ensemble was also there. Teachers presented their optional modules and worked hands on with both students and Creative Ensemble. The main theme of this meeting was getting to know each other, the underlying concept, the program of the curriculum and the content of the modules.
First Semester
We started in the first semester with two of the four compulsory modules: Leading and Guiding (taught by Michael Moore and Guy Wood) and Performance and Communication (taught by Philip Curtis, Marc van Roon and Renee Jonker as visiting guest teacher from Conservatory of The Hague). In between sessions, and sometimes at the start or end of the sessions, I was spending time on Mentoring. The sessions were held each Thursday from 09:00 to 12:00.
The assessment of the compulsory modules has been done during the orientation week.
Second Semester
During the second semester three optional modules were piloted. We started with the module 'Music for Organizational Development'. The work title for this module used to be 'Music and Business'. The module was taught by Marc van Roon. As a special guest teacher Joshua Samson was invited twice. He worked with the group using several circle games and discussing in what way these games relate to organisation development. Boomwhackers and coffee cups were used for this. Further on during the module we looked at various case studies on the web; people and organisation in this particular field of expertise. The second module was 'Cross Genre Improvisation' taught by Michael Moore. He worked with various forms and ways of using improvisation in a collective of musicians that all have different backgrounds and styles of playing. The third module is 'The Musician as Actor'. This module is taught by Philip Curtis. Philip focuses on the mental and physical space that the musician occupies the moment he or she enters a stage. Awareness of voice, attention, movement, presence and energy are all very much the focus point in this module.
Royal Conservatoire, The Hague (NL)
Six students were admitted to the Pilot of the JM in The Hague. Two more students doing their Masters at the RC were allowed to join the JM compulsory modules L&G and PM&E. The following modules were tested:
P&C
The course started with a series of workshops. Three students are now preparing a final presentation to round up this module: a recital by a singer under the title I hate music (but I like to sing) presented in a class of young people who earlier have participated in workshops led by this singer. Another student will organise an ‘interactive’ concert in which he being a jazz trumpeter will improvise with a classical flute player and a dancer of the Nederlands Dance Theatre. During the performance, the audience can give directions to the performing artists. Another student will perform in the fringe programme of an international choir festival, together with here vocal quintet and ‘attack’ new audiences with surprise performances in unexpected places.
L&G
Six students have successfully finished this course. After a series of workshops lead by Tim Steiner of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, they had various experiences in leading workshops themselves with such groups as children age 10, young people and students. These placements were undertaken in collaboration with some external partners of the RC, like Dario Fo (production house of community opera), the education department of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Nationale Reisopera.
PM&E
This course started in the second semester and ended in June with a Final Assessment. Four students successfully finished this course and three of them presented a Project Initiation Document for their Professional Integration Project in the second year of their Joint Master. In this course they have been working with professionals in the field of project management, such as Dominique Citroen (Van den Ende Foundation), Ramon Verberne , Rick Spaan (manager Veenfabriek) and graphic designer Joffrey Hoijer.
Improvisation for non-Jazz musicians
This optional module was not tested, but three students that were interested in this subject, took part in regular courses embedded in the curriculum for Bachelors at the RC
African music
Six students took part in three days of workshop with Ghanean composer/singer/drummer/flutist Dela Botri. Botri taught them traditional songs, melodies to be played on the atenteben flute and rhythms played on various percussion instruments. The results of these workshops were presented in a public performance.
mentoring
Eight students took part in the mentoring programme of the Joint Master.
evaluation
Two out of six students left the programme for economic reasons. Without any form of financial support it was difficult for them to combine the Joint Master with acquiring an income. One student, who already has a Masters degree in music and currently is teacher of African music at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and successful entrepreneur, enjoyed the programme but decided not to continue and prepare a Professional Integration Project. Three students will enter the second year (catching up the Action Research module with the new class of students starting their first year of the JMM programme in The Hague in September) hoping to graduate as Joint Masters NAIP in June 2010.
JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Music School
For the JMM piloting year 2008-2009 JAMK University of Applied Sciences tailored specialisation studies “Music Makers for New Audiences and Innovative Practice” with 30 EC in the English language. The curriculum offered two compulsory modules (PME 5 ECTS, P&C 5 ECTS) and four optional. Anyhow, no applications were received and the studies could not be realized. The specialization studies are now made again for the next year.
JAMK University of Applied Sciences has applied for accreditation of the Masters Degree in music to the Ministry of Education. The application was not successful so there will be another one the year 2010.
JAMK is in negotiations with the University of Jyväskylä (JYU) about possibilities to arrange MNAIP-studies together. The university would supply the status and the JAMK Department of Music the contents of the degree. The schools are now busy with the idea, looking for ways of collaboration.
Icelandic Academy of the Arts (IS)
In the Iceland Academy of the Arts two students piloted the Leading and Guiding module and three composition masters students piloted the Action Research modules and Project Management and Entrepreneurship. The mentoring and the Voces Thules-workshop optional module were piloted as well. Due to circumstances it became impossible to complete the Action research but other tasks were successfully completed or are about to finish.
The procedure of the pilot year in Iceland was suddenly interrupted by a collapse of the economy in October. The funding, that had previously been agreed on by the authorities, was then withdrawn for the time being, and it became uncertain whether it would be possible to run the programme in the institution as it became quite clear that the IAA could not contribute to the joint budget in this situation.
The Steering group agreed in November, as a reaction to this, that IAA would be able to stay with the project without taking part in the joint budget, but would not take in new students in autumn 2009. The IAA will then host guest students in the spring term 2010. The work on piloting and preparing the programme continued and most of the tasks of the pilot year were met successfully or are about to be completed. In the last meeting of the working groups 6th and 7th of June a decision was made that the IAA work on the programme, piloting, participation in the core group and staff development will carry on during the next academic year. Two pilot students who participated from September 2008 will continue the procedure and take on three compulsory modules next term. It is highly valuable to have this opportunity. It would be much harder to have to wait and pick up the thread with new JM students in 2010. With the ongoing development the programme will be very easily taken on by the IAA on full scale as the institution is young and therefore very flexible and still in the process of initial buildup. Secondly the fact that most sectors of the Arts are tough, gives extensive possibilities of cross-sector projects and other input from other fields of Art. The Action Research and the Project Management and Entrepreneurship modules will be compulsory for about 25 masters’ students in all departments. The idea for the Performance and Communication module, as there are only two pilot JM students, is to build it around an ensemble that will also be consisting of musicians amongst the Master of Arts Teaching students as well as bachelor students who are interested. In a way it is similar to the Groningen idea; the “Creative Ensemble”. Another important step has been taken during the pilot year. This is a new bachelor degree which is designed to be a possible first step for students to prepare for the New Audiences and Innovative Practice Masters if they are of the required standard. An important ingredient in this new programme is the mentoring element, and this will hopefully help applying those values to other programmes in the institution.
April '09 - Report - 1st semester pilot year
Royal Conservatoire, The Hague (NL)
In The Hague, 3 compulsory and 2 optional modules are tested. None of them are completed by the end of the first semester. They will finish during the second semester.
From the compulsory modules, Leading and Guiding will be finished in April, Performance & Communication in June and Project Management in May. The optional module African Music will be finished in April and the Improvisation for non-jazz musicians in June.
Icelandic Academy of the Arts (IS)
The aim of the IAA was to pilot Leading and Guiding, Action Research and Mentoring. Then Project Management was also involved in the piloting process.
There were two groups of students involved in the piloting. A small group taking part in the Leading and Guiding and Mentoring. Other three students who are doing a Masters degree in composition had the Action research and Project management as compulsory modules in the autumn term.
Leading and Guiding:
This module seemed to be necessary to spread out over the whole year, so it has not finished yet. The first sessions took place at the end of September when they joined in workshops with first year students and became co-leaders in parts of the workshops. Two placement assignments have been carried out:
1) A workshop involving IAA students and a school wind band in the eastern part of Reykjavik.
2) Workshop with around 70 people, most of them recently unemployed, who do a new Lifelong-Learning programme offered by the IAA and Bifröst university based on critical awareness, philosophy, art theory and many other subjects. The theme of the workshop was “Music as a tool for team efficiency and enhancement”.
Action research:
The IAA is offering Masters level programmes for the first time. Three students in music composition took on the Action Research module.
Mentoring:
The mentoring has mostly been through informal but consistent meetings, e-mails and phone conversations with the two participants of the Leading and guiding pilot module. Both these students are also now piloting the Voces Thules medieval music optional module, so mentoring sessions are now intertwined with those. To have real group work going with such a small number is not feasible, but this happens more in the different situations such as the Voces Thules sessions this term.
Project management:
The three composition master students completed the project management module. Although the composition students doubted the relevance to their field, as they found it very commercially based, we feel that this module will work well for the Joint Master. They will have a great need for this module which is orientated around the business side of managing events and other projects.
Prince Claus Conservatoire (NL)
First Semester Kick Off
We started the first semester of the pilot year already before the summer with a kick off meeting on 26 and 27 June 2008. Present were the teachers (Guy Wood, Philip Curtis, Michael Moore, guest teacher Renee Jonker and Marc van Roon), the four pilot master students (Maaike Oosterhaven, Janneke Hoogeveen, Doretta Caramaschi en Andrew Lipow) as well as our Creative Ensemble. Teachers presented their optional modules and worked hands on with both the students and the Creative Ensemble. The main theme of this meeting was getting to know each other, the underlying concept, the programme of the curriculum and the content of the modules.
First Semester
In the first semester we started with two of the four compulsory modules: Leading and Guiding (taught by Michael Moore and Guy Wood) and Performance and Communication (taught by Philip Curtis, Marc van Roon and Renee Jonker as visiting guest teacher from Royal Conservatoire of The Hague). In between sessions, and sometimes at the start or ending of the sessions, Marc van Roon was spending time on Mentoring. The sessions were held each Thursday from 09:00 to 12:00.
The assessment of the compulsory modules took place during the orientation week for the first year students at the end of January.
Orientation week
Reaction of Marc van Roon
My first reaction when asked for my thoughts on the Orientation week is "What a week!" And I mean that in a very inspired and positive way. This is a week never to forget and I am looking forward to next year already. For those who did not participate I will share some thoughts with you.
My task was two-fold. I was one of the workshop leaders. Humbled by the enormous professionalism of the two workshop leaders Jo and Guy from London and our own master improviser Michael Moore I was preparing myself for an intense week-long adventure with twenty students. The students turned out to be of the serious and gentle kind. It was a treat working with them on the transformation of the slightly abstract metaphorical theme 'Landscape' into a professional performance. The performance on the last day at the Coendershof centre and the Oosterhogebrug School turned out to be touching and quite creative. Luckily, I could share the responsibility of guiding my group with Philip Curtis - a teacher in the Joint Music Masters programme - and Doretta Caramaschi. She is one of the four students who are currently enrolled in the pilot year of the Joint Music Master. And that brings me to my other task.
As coordinator of the Joint Music Master I was dealing with the performance of the above mentioned four pilot students. Besides Doretta there are Janneke Hoogeveen, Andrew Lipow and Maaike Oosterhaven. Their assignments were to assist the workshop leaders and during the course of the week to demonstrate their obtained skills in - and understanding of - the various aspects of 'leading and guiding' and 'performance and communication'. Those are the names of the two piloted modules. This year it was the first year that the Joint Music Master students have been involved in such a way in the Orientation Week. One of their assignments focussing on the communication of a project for a large audience was to give a powerpoint presentation about the two performance venues. Doretta and Janneke presented all the ins and outs of the Coendershof venue and Maaike and Andrew told us about the Oosterhogebrug school. Both pairs did really well. For the first year students this information was key in the preparation of the performances. Another first was the fact that all their assignments and their performance moments were observed critically by both workshop leaders and guest teacher Renee Jonker for a final assessment of the first semester. Renee is the coordinator for the Joint Music Master at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He was invited to be part of our week and to take on the role of 'overseer' of the whole project. Also, he was the main assessor for the four students. This week gave us good insights into the process of assessing and the way to go about it in the future. Overall, the students did well and showed skills in presentation technique and in leading the workshop groups.
I tremendously enjoyed the whole week. This week is such a luxury. Being able to reflect on one's profession, one's art and one's motivation in the inspiring company of peers, teachers and a unique audience can be a highly valuable experience for all. It gives us the chance to stop and deal with questions. 'Why do I do what I do?', 'What kind of musician am I?', 'What is my audience?', 'What creative projects fit me?'. I am sure that our shared experiences during this Orientation Week brought many of us closer to the answers that are residing inside each of us.
Guildhall School of Music & Drama (UK)
At Guildhall the L&G module is piloted as part of an already existing course. The two students that have taken part in the pilot wrote an essay on their experience.
Leading and Guiding Evaluation – Ian Tripp.
When I first started this module, my initial expectation was that I would like to get better at leading workshops. I had already had quite a lot of experience of assisting with workshops and running my own workshops, but I wanted to learn from the best people possible, new skills that would help me to improve in the workshop area, and brush up on my existing knowledge and techniques. I believe that the quality of teaching was very high, and I have taken away many different techniques from these lessons, which has made it very worthwhile to do the course. These techniques included different types of control signals in the classroom, the ability to clearly control and articulate your instructions to a class whilst playing an instrument, making fast, positive decisions and keeping your integrity in the workshop at all times, and also the ability to think about the next stage of the process whilst teaching the previous section.
I think that leading and guiding had a big impact on me as a musician, because, for example in the Globetown project, you get to sit back and watch how the other groups have formed their ideas and how much work that they have put into this process. I learnt lots from this process, and I believe that some of the pieces that were composed during the course and the energy and commitment that they were performed with, both by the children and the workshop leaders, was fantastic to see.
For myself, I like the fact that the pilot course is very flexible and versatile; you can learn about lots of different areas on the pilot course, and that you are free to take it in the direction that you want it to go. The lectures on the project management course so far have been very inspiring, because they have really explained exactly how to get a project off of the ground, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the course.
Leading & Guiding evaluation Luke Eastop
To say what I hoped to learn prior to starting the leading and guiding module is difficult as I wasn't sure what the module would contain. However, as the sessions progressed I was inspired by the standard of tuition and the feeling of enrichment gained from the workshops. I particularly enjoyed the instrument based exercises - it was great to play with such an interesting group of instruments and musicians of a high skill level and a variety of backgrounds under the tutelage of experienced workshop leaders.
From these sessions I learnt valuable lessons about the potential immediacy of composition; how a piece of music can be 'generated' on the fly with subtle, gentle instruction, leaving for space for the musicians to express themselves by using a particular rhythm or scale as a starting point. This is something I would like to introduce into my musical practice. By playing in this new environment the skills I have developed as a musician were thrown into relief and I was able to draw confidence and self-awareness from this realization. In this sense, the sessions had a therapeutic effect.
My professional horizons have broadened greatly from the course so far. I think it's an effective and well balanced development program and I'm sure this would be heightened by further engagement with the other conservatoires involved. I think this swapping of skills and resources (for example the talk from Marc van Roon) adds great value to the course. I think the project management course has been successful and valuable. I was surprised by the 'live' element; usually, education projects would be hypothetical so this is particularly exciting. Being able to put forward a grand idea involving working in Brazil and then to have someone say 'well, I'm going to Brazil, prepare something and I'll propose it' is indicative of the possibilities exposed by this environment.
November '08 - Brief reports first Semester 2008-2009
Iceland Academy of the Arts (IS)
The Iceland Academy of Arts is running three compulsory modules. Two of them are compulsory modules that are part of the Master programme in composition: Project Management and Action Research. The Project Management module has been tested with positive results until now. The positive results concern the content and the didactics used, as well as the progress of the students. The Action Research module was started in partnership with Bifröst Business University, where the course was offered to the pilot students. The Iceland Academy has decided that starting autumn 2009 the school will run its own Action Research course, which is being developed by the research development staff. It will be run for all master students in all departments and the key tutor will be Ólöf Gerður Sigfúsdóttir, head of Research Development.
The Leading and Guiding pilot was started at the end of September under the direction of Sigrún Sævarsdóttir and Paul Griffiths, in cooperation with a mentor. Two pilot students are involved. The start was intergrated in the orientation week for the first year Bachelor students. Apart from Paul Griffiths, the sessions were led by Gunnar Ben. The Leading & Guiding pilot students were given special tasks in the workshops, in order to develop their leadership skills. The rest of the sessions take place in early December, as well as placements, which are organized by the students themselves.
Alongside these modules, the mentoring module has been run, mostly informally, in order to enhance the modules and explain what the Joint Music Master is about. Also some formal mentoring meetings have taken place, especially to deal with the progress and intermediary evaluation of the modules.
Royal Conservatoire, The Hague (NL)
After an admission and selection procedure in August six students were admitted to the Joint Music Master programme in The Hague. Two students from an existing Master programme were admitted to participate in the Leading & Guiding module. The course started piloting the Performance & Communication module in September, with a series of weekly lessons of three hours and with a week of intensive workshops led by Tim Steiner, guest tutor from the Guildhall School, to kick-off the Leading & Guiding module.
In the beginning of November five students started a placement at the Utrechts Centrum voor de Kunsten, leading workshops with two groups of pre-drama school students. These workshops will lead to the presentation of two mini-opera’s in December, created by the students. Later, the Joint Music Master will participate in educational projects with children and projects organised by the education department of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
In the meantime, Joint Music Master students have started their placements/projects for the Performance & Communication module. In the second semester the optional module African music and the compulsory module Project Management and Entrepreneurship will be piloted.
Guildhall School of Music & Drama (UK)
In the Guildhall two students are participating in the pilot of the Joint Music Master programme, particularly in relation to three of the compulsory modules: Leading and Guiding, Project Management and Action Research. The Leading and Guiding module is integrated with the existing Leadership Master programme. Project Management and Action Research will be piloted in the second semester, and will be open to all other postgraduate students in the school as well. The mentoring programme is not being piloted directly in this programme, but there are two new mentoring components in other courses within the school which have started this year and are being used to build experience and important feedback for the mentoring module. These relate to “Performance Matters”, a first year BMus module focusing on multiple aspects of health and well-being in preparing for performance, and to a self-reflective account of personal and professional development which is required of performance and composition postgraduate students.
Jyväskyla University of Applied Sciences / School of Music (FI)
The Leading & Guiding compulsory module will be piloted in the second semester, in the spring of 2009. Students interested in taking this module will have to apply and follow the admission procedure from the beginning of the new year.
Prince Claus Conservatoire, Groningen (NL)
Prior to starting the pilot year in September, two inspiring kick-off days in June were organised with all staff members and pilot students involved in the Joint Music Master programme at the Prince Claus Conservatoire. The main focus was to get to know each other and the underlying philosophy of the programme itself. The pilot students Janneke Hoogeveen, Andrew Lipow, Maaike Oosterhaven, Joep van Rijn and Doretta Caramaschi and the Creative Ensemble worked together with the four teachers - Marc van Roon, Guy Wood, Michael Moore and Phillip Curtis - on many topics related to the modules in the Master that will be piloted.
In September the programme started with an introductionary session with Marc van Roon, who is the key mentor in Groningen. The meaning of characteristics of the programme such as 'new audiences' and 'innovative practice' were discussed. In that same session the individual projects of the students were introduced.
During the first months there were visits from several professionals such as Renee Jonker from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Linda Hendriks and Tine Stolte. Also the group went for an orientation visit to the concert hall the Oosterpoort.
In this first semester two of the four compulsory modules are piloted: Leading & Guiding and Performance & Communication. The upcoming orientation Week in January will serve as the platform where the pilot students will demonstrate their acquired skills and knowledge connected with these two modules. During this same week the pilot students, the Creative Ensemble and the teachers will have a special role in connecting innovation, reflection on personal artistic development with new audience and new cross societal contexts.
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May 08
Kick off - Pilot Year Prince Claus Conservatoire
Joint Music Master for New Audiences and Innovative Practice
June Thursday 26 and Friday 27, 2008
Thursday June 26
9.30 – 10.30 Meeting over coffee: Marc van Roon and pilot students
10.30 – 12.30 Workshop pilot students and PCC creative ensemble Leading & Guiding / Performance & Communication (Marc van Roon and Guy Wood)
12.30 – 14.00 Lunch break
14.00 – 17.00 Workshop pilot students and PCC creative ensemble Learning & Guiding / Performance & Communication (Guy Wood)
17.00 Presentation/performance in the hall of the Prince Claus Conservatoire
Friday June 27
10.00 – 12.30 Workshop pilot students and PCC creative ensemble ‘Musicians as Actors’ (Philip Curtis)
12.30 – 14.00 Lunch break (Pilot students, Philip Curtis, Marc van Roon, Michael Moore, Jan-Gerd Kruger, Lector Rineke Smilde)
14.00 – 16.30 Workshop pilot students and PCC creative ensemble ‘Cross Genre Improvisation’ (Michael Moore)
16.30 – 17.00 Evaluation pilot students, PCC creative ensemble and Marc van Roon
