1000+ Innovating Higher Music Education through Social Inclusion

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1000+ Concerts: Innovating Higher Music Education through Social Inclusion aims to further develop and transform higher music education in Europe by promoting a socially engaged vision of how classical music is taught. It is based on the innovative “Musethica method”, which brings music students and their tutors into social institutions to play for new audiences. Among the 10 European partner organisations coming together for this project are renowned music academies, orchestras, festivals and music associations. They join forces with over 120 social institutions including hospitals, care homes, prisons, special education schools, psychiatric institutions and community centres to bring more than a thousand free concerts to marginalised groups who lack access to traditional concert venues. The result of this multi-way audience engagement project is a prestigious training programme in which a new generation of musicians, coached by world-renowned artists, develop a deeper understanding of their role as musicians in society. By being prepared to perform an intensive schedule of 12 concerts over the course of a week, the artists learn how to become better musicians by easing into the performance, trusting and listening to their audience and communicating with a wide range of people. They also come to understand that there is an enormous untapped audience for classical music, which they need to go out and find rather than expect it to come to them. Researchers from four institutes will accompany the project, collecting data to measure the impact of the concerts on the performers, on listeners (including marginalised groups and people with cognitive and physical disabilities) and on professionals working in health and social care settings. Quarterly meetings will allow participants to share experiences and circulate best practice models. The partners will publish a book to further disseminate the Musethica concept and integrate it into music curricula across Europe.