A Thematic Approach

The Polifonia working group on the Profession, which included representatives of both conservatoires and professional organisations, researched and reflected on current trends in all sectors of the music profession, the (rare and new) competencies they suggest, what this implies for conservatoire training, and the relevance of the AEC learning outcomes and the Dublin descriptors to these competencies. Site visits, examples of innovative practice, alumni policies, qualitative research and analysis nourished this reflexion and provided the basis for portraits of the profession in individual EU countries and Europe-wide. In addition, the group developed a gallery of individual portraits of musicians representative of these new and emerging trends. The group reflected on these results and assessed the way in which these trends suggest new competencies, their relationship to the AEC learning outcomes and Dublin descriptors, and suggested areas of potential development for conservatoires.

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A thematic approach helps distinguish the many threads involved: the conservatoire finds itself engaged in a constant three-dimensional dialogue, taking the initiative, relating and responding to societal trends and transformations, real and virtual audiences, and the profession and the artistic community at large.
Thus the conservatoire needs to strike a delicate balance between taking into consideration and adjusting to the realities of the post-modern, multicultural and technological society, and the implications these have both for training the future musician and for the profession as a whole.

The professional musician is part of a larger continuum which begins at the pre-college level and which asks him to anticipate, listen to and communicate with the broader music profession, audiences, and society in an open, ongoing dialogue that puts artistic quality at the heart of all that he creates.