Music in the Making: experimenting with an open and collaborative learning environment

The musical world of young conservatoire graduates is increasingly diverse. Many graduates end up playing in educational performances, musical theatre performances or other innovative crossover musical practices. Such multidisciplinary practices seem to demand different skills than technical virtuosity alone. How can we train tomorrow’s musicians? What kinds of non-musical skills and competencies do they need to flourish in contemporary music practices? These questions inspired our experimental learning environment Music in the Making. Acknowledging the changing musical practices of young musicians, we set out to experiment with learning skills that evolve around collaboration, creativity and engagement. In this article we outline some of our findings from Music in the Making and discuss implications for the role students and teachers play in such a learning process.