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Asynchronous Small Group Ensemble: An Exploration of Technology-Mediated Chamber Music Making in Higher Education

Abstract

The practice-led study discussed in this chapter explores the creative and pedagogical affordances of asynchronous small group ensembles in a higher education (HE) context, with a particular focus on four-hand duets. A qualitative multiple-case study design was adopted, which combined a range of auto-ethnographic and ethnographically informed data-construction strategies. Data were analysed through thematic analysis (TA). Within the limitations of this study, findings indicate that the “virtual ensemble model” proposed and discussed here is an artistically meaningful and pedagogically valuable form of chamber music: it affords unique opportunities for deep learning, joint creativity, and artistic fulfilment. Furthermore, it promotes the development of musical and technological literacies that can facilitate (student and professional) performers’ participation in online music communities and access to online collaborative music-making opportunities. Findings suggest that the inclusion of virtual performance in HE curricular activities can play an important role in enabling performance students to acquire the experience, skills, and mindset they need to embrace the evolving roles and identities of the 21st-century classical musician.

Table of Contents: The Chamber Musician in the Twenty-First Century