Training the Community Musician 2023

Sound Sense in partnership with the University of Aberdeen and Sage Gateshead

Thank you to everyone who joined us at Sage Gateshead on 20-21 February for two days of sharing, discussion, music-making and planning for the future. We will post our full report here in the coming weeks but in the meantime, take a look at our graphic minutes captured by Crayonce for a reminder of the ground we covered.

Training the Community Musician 2022

Sound Sense in partnership with the University of Aberdeen and Bristol Beacon

Our third Training the Community Musician symposium, and our first in-person event since 2020, took place on 21 and 22 February, hosted by Sound Sense member Bristol Beacon. Forty people from the UK community music sector gathered to participate in facilitated sessions and Open Space discussions exploring, debating, and questioning what it means to train, develop and nurture community musicians.

Community musicians, music educators, managers and music therapists tackled topics such as how community music talks to power; diversifying our workforce, what proper evaluation looks like, trauma-informed practice, how Covid has affected our sector, and much more.

Continue the TTCM conversation on YouTube

You can catch the TTCM Conversations series on our YouTube channel now. These insightful conversations between community music practitioners and educators deepen our understanding of the issues surrounding the training and development of community musicians working across a range of settings. Please do get in touch if there's a conversation you would like to have with a fellow practitioner around this topic - we always welcome new and diverse perspectives.

Training the Community Musician 2020

Sound Sense in partnership with University of Aberdeen, Edinburgh Youth Music, Sound Connections and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

In February, Sound Sense and partners presented the second Training the Community Musician Symposium, hosted by Trinity Laban Conservatoire and supported by Thomas Deane Trust.

The sold-out event, the second in a series of four symposiums planned welcomed delegates from across the UK, Europe and the US. We were pleased to welcome a mix of practising community musicians, educators, students and researchers from the field.

Building on the themes that came out of the first symposium in 2019, the structure this year offered more formal symposium activities and presentations on day 1, followed by a day of Open Space Facilitation on day 2.

Delegates explored themes such as What are the desirable and essential skills of a Community Musician? What is the Community Musicians Duty of Care; to self and other? and Within Training, what is the balance between training the person and training the musician?

Training the Community Musician 2019

The first of an annual series of gatherings, our Training the Community Musician symposium took place at the University of Aberdeen in February 2019.

We were delighted to welcome 50 delegates to the two day event, with people travelling from across the UK, Canada, USA and Israel to be there. Using an Open Space model, the event allowed participants the space and time to set the agenda and explore topics that mattered to them. The result was a powerful discussion space with plenty of room for networking and connecting with others in the field.