We often use the term apprenticeship when describing how instrumental teaching in classical music takes place. We typically think of one-to-one tuition, where the student plays and the teacher comments and gives tips and advice. Or we think of chamber music lessons where students have practiced on their own for a while before playing for their teacher, who provides comments and advice for further practice. But what happens if we think about apprenticeship in a different way? What if we think of apprenticeship as working with the master, like in a painting or carpentry workshop? What if the chamber music teacher decides to play with his or her students rather than comment from the outside?

The Chamber Music Committee at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) wanted to investigate such questions, and therefore suggested that CEMPE conducted a research project. The project was named The Collaborative Chamber Music Teacher. It was planned and carried out by Jon Helge Sætre in collaboration with Tor Espen Aspaas (NMH) and Katie Zhukov (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia).

Teachers and students do indeed play together, for example in projects and at concerts and festivals, but this is less often done as part of ordinary chamber music teaching. That's why we decided to launch an experiment. We set up four chamber music groups, two in Norway and two in Australia, consisting of students from the bachelor's and master's programs and interested chamber music teachers. The groups organized rehearsals and concerts themselves, and the repertoire consisted of chamber music from Viennese classicism, Romanticism and the early 20th century. Three of the groups worked together for about four weeks, while one group worked together for an intensive week. After everyone had finished their concerts, Zhukov and Sætre interviewed the teachers and students who had participated. Our aim was to find out how they had worked and how they experienced this form of chamber music teaching.

Both teachers and students looked forward to this experiment and saw it as a new and exciting opportunity. None of the 19 participants had been involved in anything similar as part of regular teaching. The students were particularly looking forward to working with expert chamber musicians in what they saw as a professional setting. Similarly, the teachers were looking forward to introducing the students to how they work professionally - they wanted to show what it's like in the 'real world'. This may also explain why the students felt they were better prepared than usual and therefore didn't need to use the lessons to get their parts right.