The “mirroring” method: a case study to enhance the nexus between music performance practice and artistic research in higher music education at European conservatories

Resumen

After the Bologna Declaration (1999) and the institution of artistic research in music (i.e., PhD in the Arts) in European conservatories, higher music education is facing a revolution. The renewed study program within today’s international music scene is oriented to give students the possibility to be trained and prepared as both professional musicians and/or artist-researchers. Therefore, the current debate at European conservatories is strongly focused on how to activate a nexus between performance practice and artistic research within bachelor’s and master's programmes.
This paper presents and discusses a case study of a workshop in music performance practice integrated in the Research Practice Program at Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. It consists of a series of teaching modules inspired by the mirroring method I developed during my PhD at University Ghent – Institute for Psychoacoustic and Electronic Music (IPEM) - and I implemented, as a postdoctoral artist-researcher, in my teaching at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (2021-2023). The goal of this method is to assist students in growing up their own artistic identity and trajectory and become professional performers with a possible path on artistic research in music. Students are guided on how to structure music performance practice as a research activity through a systematic documentation, analysis, and dissemination of their own creative process. Outputs can be identified in the improvement of students’ body awareness while playing in relation to score analysis and the achievements of research questions that arise from their reflection in and on their practice. An impact of this approach is retrieved in the elaboration of bachelor’s and master’s theses that can ultimately constitute a bridge for future artistic research proposals.

Keywords. Music Performance Practice, Artistic Research in Music, Higher Music Education, Music Performance Analysis, Music Analysis.