New Approaches for Advancement of Music Performance (NAAMP): Artistic Research on the Impact of A Workshop for Professional Musicians

Project summary

New Approaches for Advancement of Music Performance (NAAMP) is a project designed to facilitate new musical achievements as well as pioneering insights into processes and contexts associated with the field of music performance. NAAMP is a multi-phased coordinated artistic research project with promise for significant applications to both artistry and pedagogy, for it will document how an innovative workshop impacts the artistry of several professional musicians, while also developing creative applications for use of its approaches in music curriculum, both at the level of specialist higher education (conservatories and music teacher education programmes) and in schools. The NAAMP project will examine the short and long-term impact of an intensive workshop offered to expert musicians by renowned drama pedagogue Professor Bud Beyer. The foundations for Professor Beyer's approach are described in his new book in Norwegian, Sirkelen Sluttes (Beyer, 2013), which is now receiving outstanding reviews in which it is recognized as not only "provocative" and "thought-provoking", but even as "a new 'bible' for classical musicians" (Bonde, 2013). In recent years, Professor Beyer has given workshops for several renowned professional symphony orchestras. The participants for the NAAMP workshop are a select group of highly accomplished professional musicians from an array of backgrounds who have performed with the highest level music ensembles in western Norway.