One of the aims of the project was to establish whether peer learning in a group of students would make the students more conscious of their artistic identity and artistic ownership. This is in line with the NMH’s strategic plan I samspill – strategi 2025, which states that “the NMH puts the development of the students’ independence and artistic identity at the centre”.

Developing artistic ownership is also about taking ownership of your own learning. This means being involved and having a say in the learning process by exercising influence over which issues to work on and which direction to take. For music students this could involve choosing repertoire and managing technical priorities but also being able to make own decisions on which artistic identity they wish to adopt, developing within a given tradition, or experimenting with and perhaps challenging or criticising stylistic norms within a tradition. The ownership belongs to both the teacher and the student. Because of his or her expertise, the teacher will be able to provide meaningful guidance on which direction the student should take based on an assessment of the student’s overall talent. The student “negotiates” the ownership with the teacher to a greater or lesser extent, depending on how pronounced the artistic identity is at the different stages of the student’s development.

I had the preconception that some classical voice students do not have the courage to take ownership of their artistic development. For various reasons, many of them leave it to their teacher to set ambitions. During their studies the students are too passive in terms of choosing an artistic direction and repertoire, and they are insufficiently curious about which processes they should undergo to develop their technical and artistic skills. My preconceptions were soon confirmed after meeting the students.

At the start of the project the students were challenged to formulate their artistic ambitions by describing their anticipated work situation four years after graduating from the NMH. A couple of the students voiced clear ambitions of an opera career, some were uncertain what they thought of pursuing a career as a singer, while others still were undecided as to which genre(s) they should go for. Finally, some were modest and felt scared to tell their fellow students about their ambitions. Many of the students were very unsure because they had not been trained to make conscious decisions. This discussion triggered various processes, which made some of the students more conscious about having to make artistic decisions:

«Setting your own goals is incredibly difficult, because I’ve always been given feedback by my teachers on what is best for me. I’ve just followed my teachers’ instructions, really, and the fact that I sing classical is just down to my teachers pointing me in that direction. Deep down I feel that what I want to sing is slightly at odds with what my teacher thinks. I’ve been thinking since you asked that question in the autumn… I don’t tell my teacher, of course, but I’m thinking that the things I’m working on now are things that I want to do.»

Many of the students have a background from genres other than classical and were introduced to classical singing in their teenage years. Most of them felt less confident about their classical expertise than about music from other genres. They found that there were more absolutes, more rules, in classical singing than in other genres and that they were not familiar enough with stylistic facets and norms in classical singing to be able to trust their own preferences. They therefore relied greatly on their vocal teachers and accompanists. The students stressed that these were choices they had made themselves and that it was not a case of their teachers’ imposing them on them. One student put it like this:

«It’s very comfortable being told what to do and then just go and do it. You can easily get a bit too relaxed about it instead of being challenged to turn up to the lesson with your teacher and say: ‘I’m struggling with this. Could we work on it, please?’»

Many of the students preferred being told what kind of repertoire they should sing or what they should work on during lessons and practise:

«I feel uncomfortable when I have to start making decisions. I’m so used to being told what to do that when somebody asks me what I want, I become uncertain and think: ‘I should’ve thought about this’.»

During the project the students discussed the teacher-student relationship surrounding ownership. Many of them said they would like to see more opportunities for developing additional vocal styles and working on a broader repertoire, because they had realised that this is what their work will involve after graduating from the NMH. Several students also pointed out that after working with CRP they now want to make a greater contribution to the discussion about what and how in their singing lessons: “I can really feel it when a teacher becomes overly controlling. It has become so ingrained in me that I now react when a teacher takes full control.”13 They became clearer about wanting a balance, whereby on one hand it is important to listen to and learn as much as possible from their teacher – who possesses the expertise – while on the other they assume more ownership of their own development, partly because it gives them more motivation to practise and partly because they were becoming more conscious of what kind of singers they want to be after leaving the NMH.

One student said that you do not just take ownership after you have mastered something you have been working on. You need to be aware of where you are going long before you have acquired the skills to perform specific tasks. The student felt that during forum lessons, for example, the teachers assume that the students are unaware of a problem because they have failed to accomplish a task: