Musician-Teacher Collaborations

Book excerpt: Musician-Teacher Collaborations: Altering the Chord explores the dynamics between musicians and teachers within educational settings, illustrating how new musical worlds are discovered and accessed through music-in-education initiatives. An international array of scholars from ten countries present leading debates and issues—both theoretical and empirical—in order to identify and expand upon key questions: How are visiting musicians perceived by various stakeholders? What opportunities and challenges do musicians bring to educational spaces? Why are such initiatives often seen as "saving" children, music, and education? The text is organized into three parts: Critical Insights presents new theoretical frameworks and concepts, providing alternative perspectives on musician-teacher collaboration. Crossing Boundaries addresses the challenges faced by visiting musicians and teaching artists in educational contexts while discussing the contributions of such music-in-education initiatives. Working Towards Partnership tackles some dominant narratives and perspectives in the field through a series of empirically-based chapters discussing musician-teacher collaboration as a field of tension. In twenty chapters, Musician-Teacher Collaborations offers critical insights into the pedagogical role music plays within educational frameworks. The geographical diversity of its contributors ensures varied and context-specific arguments while also speaking to the larger issues at play. When musicians and teachers collaborate, one is in the space of the other and vice versa. Musician-Teacher Collaborations analyzes the complex ways in which these spaces are inevitably altered.