I See and Hear Things Differently Now – Students’ Experiences of the ERASMUS+ Project Voices of Women

Abstract

The interdisciplinary ERASMUS+ project Voices of Women (VOW) commenced in January 2022, bringing students and teachers from Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany together. One of the main objectives of VOW was to familiarize students and audiences with art songs created by women composers from 19th and 20th century Europe.<p>

<p>The purpose of this article is to present results from the research project Agents of Change, where we shed light on the students’ perceptions of the VOW project. We have investigated students’ knowledge of women composers and their representation in the arts, their thoughts about gender balance, and the significance the VOW project has had for their own choice of repertoire and artistic work. The empirical material of this article is based on 125 answers from questionnaires during the project over two years (2022–2024). <p>

<p>The analyses reveal that the students possessed limited knowledge of women composers prior to participating in the VOW project. The students continuously highlight the crucial significance of diversity and underscore the necessity for achieving a more balanced and inclusive representation of women in the arts and in the higher music education curriculum. In assessing whether VOW has influenced the students’ perspectives on women composers, the analysis reveals a positive impact. Those findings indicate that educational projects that are directed towards change may have a more general impact on society at large, due to students’ development as critical thinkers and broad performing activities beyond academia.