Abstracts & CVs
Paul Craenen: From proto-research in artistic practice to artistic research education
In the past decades, many higher music education institutions have firmly embedded artistic research in doctoral, graduate and undergraduate programmes, or have taken steps in that direction. Despite this institutional success, artistic research has not yet won the hearts of everyone within our institutions. Main subject teachers still often see it as an add-on that takes away precious time from practising, composing or rehearsing.
Building on the experience of recent curriculum reforms at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, I reflect on the challenges of reconciling artistic research with main subject courses. I suggest that rather than seeing artistic research as a ‘thing in itself’, it may be more useful to identify ‘proto-research’ in main subject lessons and explore how this can connect to more systematic approaches in research education.
CV: Paul Craenen is a composer and sound artist, and head of the lectorate Music, Education and Society at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. He is also an Assistant Professor and lecturer at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) at Leiden University. He received his PhD from Leiden University in 2011 with a musical portfolio and a dissertation on the music-performing body in contemporary composed music. His current research explores the changing roles of musical expertise in culture and society and the impact of these changes on higher music education.
Mikael Bäckman: My Bag of Licks: Artistic research and student autonomy
In my recently published PhD dissertation, My Bag of Licks (2024), I examined how a performer can transform their artistic voice through the process of transcription and imitation. The thesis aimed to chart my creative journey through this process and how it impacted and changed my own performance practice. Furthermore, I sought an understanding of the agencies at play in the artistic process. Finally, I explored in what ways an application of the process of transcription and imitation can contribute to student autonomy in the teaching and learning of music performance in Higher Music Education (HME). In my presentation, I present my artistic research method and how I have applied the same method in my own teaching in HME. I discuss how artistic research practices hold a potential for developing student autonomy and life-long learning.
CV: Mikael has been performing and recording with his harmonica since the early 1990’s. He has a masters degree in Music Pedagogy (2006), Music Performance (2017) and a PhD in Music Performance (2024). Mikael has published articles in the International Country Music Journal (2022), Music & Practice (2023) and contributed a chapter in Teaching Music Performance in Higher Music Education (2024). He is currently working at Piteå School of Music at Luleå University of Technology, teaching harmonica, ensemble, music history and courses related to the bachelor degree project.
Torben Snekkestad: Artistic Research as a bedrock for Masterforum Classes at NMH
This presentation explores how Masterforum classes at the Norwegian Academy of Music integrate artistic research virtues – reflection, methods, and contextual awareness—into pedagogy. Designed to develop creative musicians, the course emphasizes performance, composition, and communication.
Masterforum classes are critique-based group sessions where students analyze, discuss, and refine projects, fostering peer learning, interdisciplinary exchange, and artistic self-awareness. Guided by professional musicians, the course encourages dialogue, experimentation, and creative autonomy.
Focusing on the Individual Concentration master’s program, I will examine its impact while addressing challenges such as balancing reflection and practice, the role of artistic research in education, and the evolving influence of peer feedback.
CV: Torben Snekkestad is a Norwegian saxophonist, improviser, composer, educator, and researcher specializing in free improvisation, electroacoustic music, jazz, and classical chamber music. He collaborates with esteemed international musicians and has an extensive discography.
A professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, he holds a Ph.D. in Artistic Research. His work explores improvisation, acoustic ecology, electroacoustic music, and critical listening.
Evelyn Buyken / Arabella Pare: Collaborative and Individual: Artistic Research from a German Institutional Perspective
Artistic Research at German art and music HEI appears at the intersection of institutional constraints and disciplinary evolution. In the absence of a broadly established third cycle degree, our focus is on opportunities to engage with students enrolled in 1st and 2nd cycle degrees. This group offers diverse artistic practices and often presents little previous experience with artistic research. As a result, the pedagogical contingencies are substantially different from the engagement with more advanced and individual research projects. It is possible to shape a transition from perspectives focused on musical performance towards the ability to conduct research. Specific examples of curricular development and implementation in practice – collaborative and individual formats – are drawn from the HfMT Köln, the HfM Karlsruhe and the University of Siegen.
CV: With a background in piano performance and musicology, Arabella Pare specialises in the chamber and piano music of the 18th and 19th Centuries, the aesthetics of musical fragmentation, and research into practices and documents of performance and interpretation. Pare is Professor of Artistic Research at the HfM Karlsruhe und Research Fellow at Orpheus Instituut, Gent.
With her cello, Evelyn Buyken is an artist-researcher and currently holds a Musicology / Sound Studies professorship at the University of Siegen. She is working on multisensory sound research and embodied knowledge practices, as well as institutional and pedagogical knowledges of artistic research. Evelyn Buyken was PI of the European research project RAPP Lab.
