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Published paperWhat makes an audience? Investigating the roles and experiences of listeners at a chamber music festival AbstractThe views of audience members on their listening experiences are rarely heard in the research literature, although much speculation occurs on their roles and perspectives. This article reports on an investigation of audience experiences at a chamber music festival, and examines the ways in which social and musical enjoyment interact to generate commitment and a sense of involvement in the event. Audience members" anxieties for the future of classical music listening are discussed, and recommendations made for research and practice that could recognise more effectively the central role of the listener in contemporary musical life.

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ab s t rac tThis article reports a project designed to foster first-year music students' academic study skills and to investigate their expectations and experiences of starting at university. Data gathered through questionnaires, diaries and in-class tasks reveal the change in learning strategies and musical identity the students experience in their first semester of the music degree course. Academic work and anxieties about workload and assessment challenge the focus on performing which has previously been the students' main source of musical involvement, necessitating a redefinition of what it means to be musically successful. These findings are discussed in the broader context of musicians' life-span development, and the article concludes with some implications for practice in higher education and beyond. k e ywo r d s music students, school-university transition, student/musician identity, study skills s ta r t i n g at u n i v e r s i t y Th e f i r st s e m e st e r of any degree course brings a multitude of challenges for students as they adjust to a new physical, social and educational environment. In addition, music students are faced with possibly their first experience of being amongst a large number of performers of a similar standard. While this can bring new opportunities for making music, the loss [ 2 8 9 ]

Purpose -This article seeks to understand how audience members at a live jazz event react to one another, to the listening venue, and to the performance. It considers the extent to which being an audience member is a social experience, as well as a personal and musical one, and investigates the distinctive qualities of listening to live jazz in a range of venues. Design/methodology/approach -The research draws on evidence from nearly 800 jazz listeners, surveyed at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival and in The Spin jazz club, Oxford. Questionnaires, diaries and interviews were used to understand the experiences of listening for a wide range of audience members, and were analysed using NVivo. Findings -The findings illustrate how listening to live jazz has a strongly social element, whereby listeners derive pleasure from attending with others or meeting like-minded enthusiasts in the audience, and welcome opportunities for conversation and relaxation within venues that help to facilitate this. Within this social context, live listening is for some audience members an intense, sometimes draining experience; while for others it offers a source of relaxation and absorption, through the opportunity to focus on good playing and preferred repertoire. Live listening is therefore both an individual and a social act, with unpredictable risks and pleasures attached to both elements, and varying between listeners, venues and occasions. Research limitations/implications -There is potential for this research to be replicated in a wider range of jazz venues, and for these findings to be compared with audiences of other music genres, particularly pop and classical, where differences in expectations and behaviour will be evident. Practical implications -The authors demonstrate how existing audience members are a vast source of knowledge about how a live jazz gig works, and how the appeal of such events could be nurtured amongst potential new audiences. They show the value of qualitative investigations of audience experience, and of the process of research and reflection in itself can be a source of audience development and engagement. Originality/value -This paper makes a contribution to the literature on audience engagement, both through the substantial sample size and through the consideration of individual and social experiences of listening. It will have value to researchers in music psychology, arts marketing and related disciplines, as well as being a useful source of information and strategy for arts promoters.

This paper analyses a collection of musical life histories, drawn from 71 British respondents who have maintained a lifelong interest in music as regular concert-goers, amateur performers and/or music educators. These respondents reflect on the influences and opportunities which have contributed to their lifelong engagement in music, and in doing so illustrate the impact of changes in British music education and culture over the last 50 years. Particular analytical focus is placed here on the relative influence of home and school, on the ideal characteristics of each environment, and the relationship between them. The value of a long-term perspective on music education is debated, and conclusions drawn about the challenges to teachers and researchers that are evident from this study.Academic researchers, classroom practitioners, and sometimes even politicians have contributed over many years to an array of ambitious and varied claims for music in schools:Music can be magic. It calls for and calls forth all human virtues: imagination, discipline, teamwork, determination. It enriches and inspires. (Music Manifesto, 2005) . . . artistic creativity has an important role to play in education, strengthening awareness of the totality of our global community and of the range of relationships we have with it. The arts do not have a monopoly of creativity, but palpably they stand for an innovative view of the world. Their processes of thinking and making highlight elements of risk and challenge which are likely to be of importance to future generations. (Paynter, 1992: 11) . . . the study of the relations between music and the nervous system of the child, though yet in its infancy, gives cause for hope that it may play a part as a curative agency for maladjusted lives. (Winn, 1954: 1) While the emphasis may change between authors and across decades, the cumulative message is familiar: when taught well and sufficiently supported, music offers all children the chance for expression, insight and development, and so has lasting effects on their

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(2008) Loyalty and longevity in audience listening: investigating experiences of attendance at a chamber music festival. Music and Letters, 89 (2). pp. [227][228][229][230][231][232][233][234][235][236][237][238] https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/gcm084 eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version -refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher's website. TakedownIf you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Music and Biographical notesStephanie Pitts is a senior lecturer in music at the University of Sheffield, where she contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in music education and the psychology of music. She is the author of Valuing Musical Participation (Ashgate, 2005) and her current research includes investigation of extra-curricular performance in schools, the long-term impact of music education, and adult experiences of involvement in music.Christopher Spencer trained in social psychology at the University of Oxford with Henri Tajfel, and helped set up the Journal of Environmental Psychology in the 1980s. He has published on childrenÕs understanding and use of their environments, as well as in other areas as diverse as primate field research, traditional healersÕ 2 treatment for drug dependency, and the design of waiting rooms to reduce patient anxiety.3 Loyalty and longevity in audience listening: investigating experiences of attendance at a chamber music festival Abstract There is currently much concern amongst arts organisations and their marketing departments that audiences for classical music are in decline, yet little research has so far investigated the experiences of long-term listeners for insight on audience development and retention. This paper presents a case study of the Music in the Round chamber music festival, conducted over a three year period which included the retirement of the host string quartet, the appointment of a new resident ensemble, and associated changes in audience attitudes and priorities. The interaction between individual listening and collective membership of an audience is discussed, and the potential considered for understanding classical concert-goers as ÔfansÕ or ÔconsumersÕ.