ABSTRACT
Despite continued criticism, the European conservatory tradition continues to define music education in most places in the world. In the past, this tradition of musical expertise was best demonstrated when, for example, “royalty and nobility invited outstanding musicians to perform in their salons” (Lehmann, Gruber and Kopiez, 2018, p. 535), or when “the general public crowds the concert halls when certain celebrities perform (while other concerts are scarcely attended)” (p. 535). Over time, concert hall practice with its expectations of musicians and audiences has shaped the dominant mental model (Denzau and North, 1994; Meadows, 2009; Senge, 2006) of the music education field, in this way hiding from view the possibilities for alternative ways of practice. In this chapter, we argue that the historic concert hall practice creates a hierarchical expert gaze that not only holds explanatory power for how Western music and music education have been working in society over the past centuries but also effectively limits the transformative potential of professional practice in contemporary societies that aims towards democracy, wider participation, and justice.
