ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we introduce a theoretical framework for understanding higher classical music education in nations that constitute European borderlands: places between the East and the West of Europe where nationhood has been hard-won. In doing so we develop and discuss ideas of “multiple Europes” and Europe as a borderland in understanding what it means to construct nation and gender in European higher classical music education today. The theoretical perspective traces Europe, as it is understood today, to the empires of the past and the nation-building of the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting the intersecting power trajectories of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and gender as taking part in shaping these histories. Importantly, the East/West divide of Europe has formed both institutions, ideas, and experiences of Europe Many of the current negotiations around nation and gender in Europe take national origin stories and ideas of ethnic unity as starting points. Locating our higher music education (HME) institutions in these negotiations of nationalism, we analyse the self-described histories of our institutions as they are presented on their webpages. In the present time, late 19th-century ideals of nation and gender still exist in the higher classical music education institutions we study, and they were founded during these times. But they do so alongside the dynamic and international ideals of a worldwide work market for classically trained musicians, the European Union policies for gender equality, diversity, and anti-racism, and ideals of equality and democracy. Our institutions—the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, and the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music—are presented and discussed as negotiating these articulations of nation and gender. We use their own online narratives to situate them in the current European landscape for HME and in the East/West divide.
