Teaching and Evaluating Music Performance at University

Fresh perspectives on teaching and evaluating music performance in higher education are offered in this book. One-to-one pedagogy and Western art music, once default positions of instrumental teaching, are giving way to a range of approaches that seek to engage with the challenges of the music industry and higher education sector funding models of the twenty-first century. Many of these approaches - formal, informal, semi-autonomous, notated, using improvisation or aleatory principles, incorporating new technology - are discussed here. Chapters also consider the evolution of the student, play as a medium for learning, reflective essay writing, multimodal performance, interactivity and assessment criteria.
The contributors to this edited volume are lecturer-practitioners - choristers, instrumentalists, producers and technologists who ground their research in real-life situations. The perspectives extend to the challenges of professional development programs and in several chapters incorporate the experiences of students.
Grounded in the latest music education research, the book surveys a contemporary landscape where all types of musical expression are valued; not just those of the conservatory model of decades past. This volume will provide ideas and spark debate for anyone teaching and evaluating music performance in higher education.

John Encarnacao lectures in music at Western Sydney University, Australia. His book, Punk Aesthetics and New Folk (2013/2016), is an alternate history of popular music argued through the analysis of recordings that span the period 1926-2011. He has also published essays on Throbbing Gristle, Courtney Barnett and Angela Carter. As a guitarist, singer, songwriter, composer and improviser he has some 30 releases to his credit. Diana Blom, Associate Professor of Music at Western Sydney University, has published on higher education music performance and preparing new music for performance. She is co-author (with Matthew Hindson and Damien Barbler) of Music Composition Toolbox (2007). A composer and keyboard player, she has co-curated several CDs for release.

1. Teaching and evaluating music performance at university: a twenty-first century landscape John Encarnacao and Diana Blom PART II Student experiences 1 2. Reassessing what we call music: investigating undergraduate music student response to avant-garde music through Annea Lockwood's "Piano Burning" Diana Blom and Raymond Strickland Teaching approaches: Student collaboration 3. All together now: semi-autonomous ensemble building through collaboration Eleanor McPhee 4. Transformational insights and the singing-self: investigating reflection and reflexivity in vocal and musical group learning Diane Hughes 5. The iPad Orkestra ensemble: creative and collaborative learning Ian Stevenson and Diana Blom PART II Student experiences 2 6. Back to the future: a role for 1960s improvisatory scores in the 21st century undergraduate music performance program Diana Blom, Brendan Smyly and John Encarnacao Professional development 7. A professional development program to facilitate group music performance teaching Annie Mitchell Teaching approaches: performance practice 8. Implementing group teaching in music performance Annie Mitchell 9. Introducing first year music students to the choral experience: skills for lifelong enjoyment and for the portfolio career Naomi Cooper 10. Free improvisation: what is it, can it be taught, and what are the benefits? John Encarnacao, Brendan Smyly and Monica Brooks 11. Performativity and interactivity: pre-paradigmatic performance Ian Stevenson 12. Expanded practice: facilitating the integration of visual media, theatricality and sound technology into music performance Ian Stevenson, John Encarnacao and Eleanor McPhee PART III Student experiences 3 13. Play as a medium for active learning in vocal education at university Lotte Latukefu and Irina Verenikina Evaluating performance 14. Disciplinary perspectives on music performance through the lens of assessment criteria Ian Stevenson 15. Engaging music performance students in practice-led reflective essay writing and video/recording analysis Eleanor McPhee and Diana Blom PART IV Student experiences 4 16. Curriculum as catalyst: from rock guitarist to transcendent improvisation Adrian Barr and Diana Blom CONCLUSION 17. Provocations for change in higher music education Glen Carruthers