How can we prepare music students for early career challenges?

Abstract

Earning a living via multiple income streams through a portfolio career is the reality for most music graduates. In the last 10–15 years, music conservatoires around the world have begun to recognise and respond to this reality in the way they train and prepare students for life after study (Bennet, 2008; Draper & Cunio, 2014; Rowley et al., 2015; Schippers et al., 2016). Conservatoire curricula is prescribed and controlled to ensure that students gain the skills required to build a career as a professional musician. Reforming conservatoire curricula to incorporate portfolio career training is an ongoing concern that is made more complex by the different conceptual understandings of what training for a portfolio career means (Latukefu & Ginsborg, 2018). This article contributes to the literature on how students conceptualise and make decisions surrounding their transition into work after graduation. It uses narrative analysis research to investigate the value of introducing career design into the curriculum of a Bachelor of Music. It incorporates narratives by students who took part in a series of interventions designed to increase self-efficacy and explores the role of career indecision in the designing of a creative career. Career indecision in this context relates to the inability of music students to conceive of what they wish for their creative career to look like after graduation, even when a decision is necessary. The narratives reveal how different factors such as family support, cultural and religious backgrounds and prior music education impact on their confidence and perceptions surrounding their ability to design and maintain a creative career. These narratives also uncovered the interplay of career exploration, career indecision and anxiety in the career decision-making process of undergraduate music students.

From Portfolio to Platform Career

“…The portfolio career strategy may be common, but it is not easy (Latukefu 2022, Westgarth 2023. It is also not for everyone.…”

Assumptions of Normality: How Three Women with a Disability Changed the Face of Music

“…For more about music as a tool for Disability Activism, see Kolin 2021. 8 As an example, see two recent studies, the first one by Tim Palmer and David Baker (2021) about the experience of four classical musicians in conservatoires in the United Kingdom, and the second one by Lotte Latukefu and Jessica Pollard (2022) about the professional perspectives of conservatoire students in Australia. The references to the application rules to such institutions are also covered in these articles.…”

In the beginning was the organ: On the institutionalisation of professional music education in Norway

“…Kravet om at man skal kunne håndtere ulike arbeidsoppgaver og inneha flere roller, blir ofte løftet frem som saeregent for et yrkesliv i en mangfoldig musikkbransje. Begrepene portfoliomusiker og entreprenørskap brukes i dag både av utdanningsinstitusjoner og i forskningslitteraturen for å beskrive hvilke arbeidsformer og kompetanser som kreves Latukefu & Ginsborg, 2019;Latukefu & Pollard, 2022;Watne & Nymoen, 2018). I dag er det ikke lenger tilstrekkelig å ta utgangspunkt i samfunnets behov.…”