Bi-musical Curricula and “Abyssal Thinking”: The Case of KM Music Conservatory, India

Abstract

This article explores student and teacher experiences of bi-musical education at KM Music Conservatory (KM). KM is a higher education institution in Chennai, India, established in 2008 by the internationally renowned film composer, A. R. Rahman. The Conservatory offers various courses, including a Diploma programme validated by Middlesex University, UK, as part of an internationally recognised bachelor's degree in music. Students enrolled in the diploma programme study Western art music and Hindustani classical music as core subjects alongside audio engineering, in what has been described as a bi-musical curriculum. Teacher and student experiences of KM's curriculum indicate bi-musical education can reaffirm colonial, Orientalist, and neoliberal discourses. I argue this should be recognised as an outcome of bi-musical education; however, I also argue that if the generation of these discourses is acknowledged, bi-musical education can bring into dialogue a diverse range of issues that can be used to confront and unsettle colonial ideology, Orientalism, and neoliberalism in engaged ways.

Musicians as “Makers in Society”: A Conceptual Foundation for Contemporary Professional Higher Music Education

“…With many musicians and music organisations confronting rapidly shifting professional landscapes (Tolmie, 2020 ), HMEIs have over the last 30 years increasingly been adapting elements of their programmes, recognising the need to support portfolio careers and to enhance employability (Gembris and Langner, 2005 ; Bennett and Hannan, 2008 ; Bennett, 2016 ; Munnelly, 2020 ). Initiatives have focused, for example, on education in creative and cultural entrepreneurship (European Association of Conservatoires, 2014 ; Amussen et al, 2016 ; Renew, 2019 ); decolonising curriculum, including greater diversity in composers, performers and teachers represented in performance, as well as more diverse musics and musical practises being studied (Myers, 2016 ; Avis, 2019 ; European Association of Conservatoires, 2020 ); promoting intercultural collaboration and learning through international exchange and partnership (Grant, 2018 ; Bartleet et al, 2020 ); and exploring digital technologies in creating content (Ruthmann and Hebert, 2012 ), engaging audiences (Tsiouslakis and Hytönen-Ng, 2016 ; Toelle and Sloboda, 2019 ), and opening up access to learning (Krebs, 2017 ; Merrick, 2018 ). Some institutions have begun to promote forms of artistic citizenship in their graduate outcomes, and to explore how to combine ongoing practical craft training with addressing major societal changes including both social and environmental issues (Sarath et al, 2014 ; Tregear et al, 2016 ; Grant, 2018 ; Angelo et al, 2019 ; Westerlund and Gaunt, 2021 ).…”

“…Specialising at either end of the spectrum may in itself be unproblematic. However, connexions across the spectrum, and some fluency with both established repertoire and creating new work, appear increasingly vital to practise in contemporary contexts because of the way they provoke musicians’ investigation of their own identities, their relationship to musical materials, and of the diverse social dimensions of “musicking” (Schippers, 2010 ; Avis, 2019 ; Bordin et al, in press ). See also, for example, the direction of the Netherlands violin competition that places a particular emphasis on artists’ approach to “making” performance 3 Such connexions illuminate possibilities in what it is and can be to “make” music, and suggest that combined artistic and social imagination offers potential to create hybrid approaches to the places and spaces of professional practises (Bhaba, 2004 ; Gielen and de Bruyne, 2009 ).…”