News from the International Office

Classical music education in India differs fundamentally from that in Europe: In India, musical knowledge is traditionally passed on orally by the teacher to his or her pupils. Nonetheless, there is great interest in European music and the educational methods at conservatories and academies in India. The Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata and the University of Music Würzburg are now responding to the desire for creative exchange and the establishment of professional networks with a further training programme for music educators from India.

The project was initiated as a response to the desire expressed by Indian educators for a larger repertoire of methodical didactic tools to teach European music. In order to assess the tangible demand and the prerequisites for a further training project, in 2009 the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata commissioned Prof. Dr. Bernd Clausen from the University of Music Würzburg with a study. The result of the study is an advanced training programme in Germany and India that is aligned to the requirements of Indian music conservatories. The objective of further training is to make experienced instrumental educators from India familiar with didactical theories and methods employed in German music schools and academic teaching.

The skills obtained will then be transferred to the specific needs and possibilities in Indian cities and passed on via professional networks. According to the preliminary study, piano, violin and guitar are the instruments most frequently taught; therefore a special emphasis will be laid in the instruction of these instruments.

The three-phase model

The advanced training course is divided up into three phases. The first phase will be held between 12 April and 7 May 2010 by the University of Music in Würzburg. In order to prepare for their stay, the Indian music teachers are presently attending language courses at the Goethe-Instituts in India. When they arrive in Germany they will take part in seminars at the university and sit in at music schools in the Würzburg area. The music teachers will be accompanied by mentors. Further focal points of the first advanced training phase include the reciprocal exchange of music education stimuli as well as transferring the newly gained knowledge to the teachers’ own experience.

Two one-week phases in India will follow in the summer and autumn of 2010, during which the focus will be on consolidating basics of instrumental teaching. Based on the participants’ own teaching experiments, they will plan, carry out and evaluate the instrumental lessons.

Finally, the third phase in autumn 2010 will centre on selected instrumental teaching topics such as group lessons, links to elementary music education as well as concert education in theory and in practice.

Following successful participation in all three modules, the teachers will be granted a certificate from the Goethe-Institut and the University of Music Würzburg.

This project phase will close at the end of the year with an international symposium, where, among other things, a course evaluation will be presented. In addition, the project partners will sound out further prospects of the cooperation. In the long term, the programme, which is part of the Culture and Development initiative, will promote the establishment of a self-sustaining network of music schools and conservatories in India, which offer one another professional support and maintain a dialogue with German institutions.