Teaching music mediation in Canada
Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility at the Université de Montréal
At the invitation of Irina Kirchberg, visiting professor for music mediation in the Music Faculty of the Université de Montréal, in spring 2023 I taught at the École d´été en médiation de la musique / Summer School on Music Mediation on the campus of the Orford Musique, about a two-hour drive from Montreal.
For the past several years, Irina Kirchberg has been developing an extensive teaching and research programme for music mediation at the Université de Montréal. There, she directs a research partnership whose members include not only scholars but also students and practitioners from various institutions, such as the Opera de Montréal and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In the area of teaching, there is a dedicated study programme (DESS) for music mediation with close ties to musicology.
A total of sixteen students took part in the first Summer School on Music Mediation, held in Orford, Quebec. I had nominated two of them from the mdw, so Hannah Eberle and Sara Glanzer were also able to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity. In addition to giving two lectures on the role of music mediation in the careers of professional musicians and on German-language literature in the field of music mediation, I coached a small group throughout the week with a view to presenting a music-mediation activity as part of a closing event. On the final day of the Summer School, patients from the Centre l’Elan, a community centre for people with mental disabilities, were invited to visit. The students designed a music-mediation programme for them that included meditation, improvisation, listening to music, composing, and making music together. This resulted in touching moments of musical interaction that were fulfilling for the students as well as the participants.
The Summer School was my second visit to the Université de Montréal as part of Erasmus+, following a stay in October 2022. In June 2023, Irina Kirchberg will visit the mdw in Vienna. These encounters have already given birth to an initial joint project: the International Journal of Music Mediation, which will be published by mdwpress. A joint research proposal is in the works.
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