This year PJP welcomed Stephen Nachmanovitch (US), the author of the highly acclaimed book “Free Play,” as its keynote speaker. Participants, together with invited artists and experts discussed about play and playfulness within the world of music making and had an occasion to participate in the activity session proposed by Lucas Dols, founder of the international foundation Sounds of Change. This initiative trains people to integrate music as an empowering and enabling tool in their work with children in (post) conflict areas.
The interaction between students, educators and festival organizers culminated with a panel discussion featuring 4 different personalities of the music and music education scene (Lucas Dols from Sounds of Change; Valentin Brunn, known as DJ Virtual Riots; Stefano Zenni, musicologist from Conservatorio "G.B. Martini" Bologna and Susanne Abbuehl, vocalist and composer from University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne, Switzerland) who met participants in a world café format. Furthermore, participants had plenty of opportunities to meet and exchange ideas during breakout group discussions, networking moments, and virtual interaction via a dedicated conference app.
This year’s PJP introduced a new feature, the “Open Floor”, a session where delegates from the PJP community can share their ideas and practices by giving a short presentation followed by floor discussion on topics such as innovative curriculum design, learning and teaching, new technologies in education, genre perspectives and intercultural and international aspects of education.
The event also featured the presence of many international students, which took part in the House of Europe project. This project puts into practice a model to support interaction between local populations and immigrants by song writing and creation of new music in live situations. About 10 new songs related to refugees’/immigrants’ stories and topics dealing with internationality and European cultures have been the result of this intense week of collaboration. The songs were performed on Saturday, February 10 during the final concert of the conference.
Finally, meetings and workshops open to students organized by the VoCon (Vocal Teachers Group) took place on Sunday as a spin-off of the event.
Curious about what happened at the PJP 2018? The complete programme as well as the slide shows projected during the conference are available on the PJP 2018 webpage.
Last but not least, the AEC Pop and Jazz Platform Working Group chaired by Lars Andersson from Malmoe Academy of Music thanked and said goodbye to three members who are stepping out of the group: Stefan Heckel, Simon Purcell and Maria Pia de Vito. The AEC is very thankful to all three of them for their commitment and contribution to the group during the past years!
The next gathering of the Pop and Jazz Platform will take place at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, on 15-16 February 2019. See you all there!
