Academic literature on the topic 'Professional musician'

The article analyzes various interpretations of the concepts “competence”, “professional competence”, “teacher-musician’s professional competence”. The article highlights the scientists’ views on the issue of future teachers-musicians’ professional competence developing during professional training. It is determined that the formation of professional competence implies a comprehensive, harmonious development of the future teacher-musician who has not only theoretical knowledge but also practical skills and abilities.The author notes that one of the most important subjects in the content of special disciplines at art faculties is voice staging. During which students master vocal techniques, singing breathing, diction, emotional and dynamic expression, stage skills, etc. The main principles in solving musical and pedagogical issues of vocal education are the harmonious development of musical and creative abilities of vocal students in the process of developing general vocal culture, comprehensive development of individual qualities of vocalists.The study of scientific works allowed us to determine the essence of the concept of “professional competence of the future teacher-musician”, which includes a system of theoretical and practical knowledge, skills and abilities, experience, pedagogical abilities, important personal and professional qualities to ensure the successful self-realization of the future teacher in music education. The prospects of scientific research on the introduction of innovative learning technologies into the educational process, the search for ways of creative self-realization of experts in the art industry with an emphasis on personal and professional development have been outlined.

At the present stage, musical and performing activity requires rethinking key concepts and identifying its new content. The article contains an analysis of modern professional training of a musician-performer at a university. Special attention is paid to the significance of interpretation in modern musical and performing activities. Long-term practice of concert performance creates a significant number of performing interpretations. A musician-performer must not only get acquainted and try to interpret the composer's text, but also try to understand this value content. The article offers an understanding of interpretation as a reinterpretation of the content of a work based on the artist's personal creative beliefs, which implies a different experience. This topic is also supplemented by the consideration of the act of joint activity of the participants in the performance, during which a common view of the ideas and images of a musical work is developed, as a result of which the audience's consciousness is transformed. This requires communicative competence. Thus, a musician-performer combines both communicative and interpretative abilities. The article considers the structure of professional competence of a musician-performer, taking into account the specifics of professional activity and based on the competence approach. The existing approaches to defining the essence of the concept of competence are analyzed. The structure of professional competence integrates musical and performing, interpretive, communicative, pedagogical, organizational and managerial competencies. Communicative competence is considered as a professionally significant personal property of a future musician-performer in the course of professional training at a university.

The article substantiates the relevance of the introduction into the professional training of students of musicians on the principle of integration. The philosophical and pedagogical definition of such concepts as “spirituality”, “spiritual values” of a student-musician is given. The purpose of the article is to introduce the principle of integration into professional training, the impact of integration processes on the development of the spirituality of students-musicians. The goal and advantages of integration training as the basis for the spiritual development of a student-musician are determined.The humanistic paradigm of education (V. P. Andrushchenko, I. A. Zyazyun, A. M. Stepashko) is the methodological basis for solving the problems of the article. A synergetic approach to the processes of development and self-development of spirituality, the thinking of the student, his creative “Self” (V. G. Budanov, V. V. Vasilkov). One of the areas of development of the conceptual foundations of the moral development of student-musician is the introduction into the educational process of the principle of integration of knowledge about the spiritual sphere of man, spiritual values, as the foundations of human culture.It is impossible to give education on the principles of a particular science, regardless of other sciences. This integration is an organic combination of the information of other educational disciplines around the topic of music, musical interpretation, is one of the most promising innovations that imposes new conditions for the activities of teachers and students, has a great influence on the effectiveness of the perception of young musicians learning material. Integration processes in the professional training of young musicians have become more and more important in recent years as they are aimed at implementing new educational ideals — the formation of a holistic knowledge system about musical art and performing skills, the development of students’ creative musical abilities and spirituality. The essence of the principle of integration is based on scientifically grounded, organic interpenetration of different areas of knowledge: in the form of a set of associations, symbols, categories, etc., taking into account the psychological and pedagogical features of the personality of student-musician in order to optimize and increase the effectiveness of forming a coherent picture of the world, value orientations and phenomena of art within the same subject. Thus, the use of the principle of integration in educational activities (in reliance on the widespread use of subject relations) contributes to developing, humanistic learning, in turn, stimulating the spiritual development of a student-musician.

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experience of professional instrumental musicians who have experienced playing-related injuries. The study used a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology developed to examine this lived experience. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 professional musicians, followed by a focus group where preliminary findings were presented to participants and their feedback was sought. Other sources of lived experience included participant-observation by the researcher, who is a musician and has experienced injuries, and biographic and artistic representations of musical performance and its loss, including literature, films, and television. The findings were summarized in a visual representation unique to this study. The representation illustrates three roles--musician, worker, and teacher--that are participated in, and disrupted by, the experience of being injured. In addition, the experience of a playing-related injury takes place within the context of a healthcare system which was perceived as insufficient to meet their needs: specialized care was rarely available and, if available, was not local or timely; treatment operated on a fee-for-service model when many musicians had meagre incomes and lacked coverage for these services; and treatment provided often failed to allow musicians to continue to perform at the level they had previously achieved. Finally, the representation illustrated four existentials--lived time, space, body and social relations--that permeated the experience. This study suggests that improvements to healthcare delivery and education of musicians, music teachers, and healthcare professionals are needed.

The purpose of this study is to examine in depth the lives of visually impaired professional musicians via the life history method. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with eight visually impaired professional musicians. The data analysis considered three facets of life history proposed by Mandelbaum: dimensions, turning points, and adaptations. The dimensions of life (families, schools, private music teachers, and performance groups) were analysed first. The turning points of life involve accepting and overcoming an impairment and choosing to major in music. Adaptations to life involve persevering in a harsh social environment, living as an impaired musician, aspiring to a successful career as a professional musician, and learning from vigorous musical activities. Most participants suggested that families and performance groups are the most important dimensions of their lives. With respect to turning points, choosing to major in music has enabled the participants to accept and overcome the difficulties associated with being visually impaired. Through adaptation, the participants appear to have found their value, role, and meaning both as members of society and as professional musicians. This implies both the importance of expanding performing opportunities for visually impaired musicians and the importance of acknowledging their professional activities, affording visually impaired musicians better livelihoods by offering them more fulfilling roles in the field of music along with significant, long-term public support.

There have been, since Becker's pioneering work in the field of jazz (Becker 1951), a small handful of empirical studies that have focused on the popular musician in society – most specifically with respect to the conflicts such musicians can feel between what they want to play and what is demanded of them by their audience and the larger commercial market. Becker pointed out the vast differences between the expectations of the audience, those of the employers and those of the performer. In general, the audience expects the musician to play commercially popular tunes in an orthodox manner. The employer, concerned about money, applies financial sanctions to coerce the musician to fulfil audience expectations. The musicians, on the other hand, prefer to play the more individually expressive and esoteric forms of their music – in this case, jazz.

This article examines research on the specific training of musicians before they begin work as players in professional orchestras. Most of the research is in the area of education. The present article suggests that little research exists that is specific to the development of a traditional orchestra musician from an early age through the music education system, although considerable research exists on the development and broadening of the actual role of the professional musician in a changing world (portfolio careers).