Musicians working in community contexts: perspectives of learning

This paper will explore types of learning, which takes place when musicians work in situations where they have to connect to community contexts.
It will first address musicians’ changing professional roles in the changing sociocultural landscape and the need for lifelong learning and emergence of life wide learning which this brings about. It will then go into the rise of the ‘community musician’ and the leadership this requires to exercise, illuminated through an example
of musicians working with people living with dementia and their care staff.
Based on this example perspectives of these musicians’ learning are discussed, where especially transformative learning, where the musician needs to change her frame of reference (Mezirow) and transitional learning, brought about by small changes in musicians’ life world and biography, seem at stake.
Keynote address: Royal College of Music in Stockholm: symposium titled: Students' ownership of learning: a meeting place for teachers and students in higher music education,15-17 September 2010