Rhythmic Music Conservatory

This collaborative autoethnography was developed by recent doctoral students in music from Southern Europe, Eurasia, East Asia, and North America, along with a professor based in Northern Europe. Our primary research question is “What can disruptive autobiographical experiences teach us about the implications of the decolonization movement for redefining “musical excellence” in higher music education?” The co-authors interviewed each other for their respective personal narratives on this theme, then collaboratively coded, analyzed and developed their results and interpretations. Four sub-questions served as prompts: (1) What was your gateway into music and how did the music learning-tradition that you were exposed to affect your development as a musician? (2) In what ways was the concept of “musical excellence” a part of your (early) development as a musician? (3) How does the concept of “musical excellence” impact how being an “artist” is defined by you and people around you? (4) How did this perception of “what is an artist” affect your musical path (and even how others perceive your career)? We share our findings and discuss implications in terms of possible innovations to higher music education, definitions of “musical excellence,” approaches to evaluation, and the role of competition in education.

This chapter contributes to the emerging literature on musicians of immigrant parentage in Scandinavia, analyzing significant moments in the careers of four artists: Adam Tensta in Sweden, Karpe Diem in Norway, and Natasja and Outlandish in Denmark. They have all confronted whiteness as a hegemonic dimension of national identity, with implications for racial coding of genres. Immigrant populations of color have gained a significant presence in African American genres and have advocated for transcultural or multicultural conceptions of nationhood. This chapter analyzes significant political moments in the careers of the four artists and how they interact with local Scandinavian histories of freedom and democracy. The idea of New Nationals is adopted in the interpretation of these new and more multicultural conceptions of nationhood across Scandinavia.