In music institutions, performance and being a performer is often implicitly regarded as a superior form of musical engagement to other areas of study (e.g. Ferguson, 2009; Parkes, Daniel, West, & Gaunt, 2015; Pellegrino, 2009; Perkins, 2013). Perkins (2013) investigated the role of the learning culture of a conservatoire in terms of how people conceptualise their learning, as well as who they are and how they fit into the structure of the environment. In this interview study of 42 students, teachers, and administration staff at an institution in the UK, Perkins noted the importance placed on performance, including often unconscious bias among participants towards valuing performance over other areas of study.
Individuals experience musical identities in different ways according to the cultural interpretations and importance attached to them. Parkes, Daniel, West, & Gaunt (2015) looked at identities and career satisfaction of tertiary studio music teachers. They found that of 179 studio teachers, most saw themselves as more talented as teachers, but more satisfied as performers. Some identified much more strongly with performing than with teaching, which potentially impacted negatively on their teaching. Parkes et al. concluded that teacher and performer identities were separate, and that career satisfaction for each identity was predicted by different factors. Participants were more satisfied as performers if they saw themselves as talented; however, they were more satisfied as teachers if they identified as teachers. These results carry implications for the well-being and development of both performers and aspiring performers, since they reflect an underlying belief in innate ability rather than effective learning and coping strategies.
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Looking at institutions and identities, Triantafyllaki (2010) compared the identities and professional knowledge of 28 performance teachers in two institutions: one music conservatoire, and one university music department. Drawing on data from interviews and lesson observations, she found that the forms of professional knowledge that teachers drew on differed according to the value placed on the identities of performer and teacher in each workplace. For example, in the university department, participants seemed happy to take on the role, but not the identity of teacher. That is, they would carry out the role of teacher with their students; however, during the interviews they presented themselves solely as performing artists. Triantafyllaki attributed the ‘foregrounding’ of the performer identity to the values of the university department workplace, in which competency meant being a good player, with the implication that good teaching would automatically follow. The Conservatoire teachers, in contrast, tended to emphasise their identities as teachers.
Triantafyllaki (2010) concluded that it would be valuable to support Conservatoire teachers in greater investment in their identities as performers, and music department teachers in their identities as teachers. This would create better role models for students and form a stronger basis for professional development. This conclusion overlooks the fact that identification as a performer is influenced by wider cultural assumptions, such as views of talent (Parkes et al., 2015) and the value of performance (Perkins, 2013). It also assumes that multiple role identities are most beneficial for both students and teachers, a conclusion which is suggested by some studies, but which has not seen sufficient research (Austin, Isbell, & Russell, 2012). Many performers are also teachers, and implicit assumptions as to the importance of this vocation are likely to affect the quality of their teaching; however, it could be supportive of motivation and development as a performer to view performance as valuable and special, and to identify with this role above all others.
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A study conducted by Austin, Isbell, & Russell (2012) provides some insight into the question of the desirability of multiple or single role identities. Austin et al. used a questionnaire survey of 454 undergraduate music majors enrolled at three different tertiary music institutions to investigate developing occupational identities and their associated social behaviours. They found that such identities and behaviours were formed in interaction with the studio teacher, but also with the wider environment of institutional culture, peers, academic and other teachers, and influences from outside the music school. In particular, the culture of the institutions in question – including the value and status of performance – influenced the beliefs and values developed by the students in relation to becoming professional musicians. Importantly, Austin et al. found that individuals could hold multiple identities, or multiple ‘provisional’ identities during identity exploration, and concluded that in view of the varied skill set demanded by contemporary life as a professional musician, it could be beneficial to support holistic development of multiple identities, or at least to encourage student adaptability and transference of skill set from one role to another.
An important factor emerging from Austin et al’s (2012) study was the role of experience in the identification process: greater experience with a role identity supported stronger identification with that role. This conclusion is supported by a study by Bennett & Stanberg (2006), who looked at the musical identities of a cohort of 38 second-year undergraduate students enrolled in music education, performance, or composition. This study recorded the effects of an intervention in which students were exposed over a semester to positive teaching experiences, including developing curricula and delivering material to peers, thereby constructing a personal teaching philosophy. The results of this study showed a shift among performance and composition students from a tendency to think of teaching as a ‘fall back’ option or a way to earn money, to a much more positive view of teaching as a real option, and not just something for “drop outs” (Bennett & Stanberg, 2006). This study highlights the role of positive experience and the
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development of a personal framework for possible selves (see 2.1.3.2), including the construction of a personally-relevant identity as a teacher.
2.3.3.1.1 Flow – emphasis on performance experience
Cultural emphasis on performance within tertiary music institutions is associated with assumptions about the nature of performance. There exists an image of ideal performance as something which transcends normal experience, as illustrated by a quote from Leonard Bernstein:
The only way I have of knowing I've done a really remarkable performance is when I lose my ego completely and become the composer. I have the feeling that I'm creating the piece, writing the piece on stage, just click, click, click, making it up as I go, along with those hundred people who are also making it up with me (Green & Gallwey, 1987, p.95(Green & Gallwey, 1987, p.95).
The expectation that performance should represent a peak experience involving reduced self- consciousness, a focus on the present moment, and a sense of control over outcomes is similar to the performance state known as flow (Csíkszentmihályi, 1996). Flow is reported to be highly pleasurable, and Csíkszentmihályi noted that many successful performers – in any given field – are motivated by their desire to experience flow more than any other factor. Although Csíkszentmihályi emphasised that flow described an ideal experience and was not necessarily associated with peak performance, the two have become linked in the minds of many (Privette, 1983). Exploration of the influences on musical identities of the assumption that performance should resemble a flow experience formed part of the framework for interview questions in the present study.
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