Music Education without Borders – a Common Language for Residents and Refugees 

Authors

  • Gesa Rachel Biffio Hochschule Darmstadt – University of Applied Sciences;  Münster University (Germany)  Author

Keywords:

music educational projects, refugees, multicultural environment, methodology, artistic research

Abstract

During the process of stabilization and institutionalization of music education arrangements for refugee children and adolescents, the author detects a wide range of musical and pedagogical expressions on the part of music educators, among them many musicians with migration backgrounds themselves, as well as, on the part of participants, of educational interventions, for both refugees and residents. Academic supervision and beginning the documentation of specific projects has led to a research project on music education in transition processes. Herein, biographical interlacing between refugees and musicians is one missing link to be reconstructed. The multicultural environment of music education serves as a paradigm for migration societies themselves. Hence, the author specifies broad experiences of the preliminary assessment pointing out research questions and limitations for the sake of a relevant contribution to the development of a methodology of Artistic Research into the aesthetic and vigor of musical languages in multicultural encounters such as refugee music projects. 

Author Biography

  • Gesa Rachel Biffio, Hochschule Darmstadt – University of Applied Sciences;  Münster University (Germany) 

    Gesa Rachel Biffio was born in Berlin. She studied Music Education, Performance and Theory at the Music Academies of Cologne, Maastricht, and Ljubljana and was appointed academic cellist and music professor as well as acquiring her Ph.D. in Music Theory.  Additionally, she studied Philosophy and Romance Philology at Tübingen University and the Freie Universität Berlin. Dr. Biffio holds a chair in the degree programs for Applied Musical Arts and Instrumental/Vocal Pedagogy at the Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt (University of Cooperative Education). Parallel to this, Dr. Biffio lectures at other music academies such as Münster University and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Her main topics of research in music are extended playing techniques for cello, artistic research into contemporary music, and concert pedagogy. She performs regularly as a cellist in world premieres, contemporary music festivals as well as in music theatre productions. She is passionate about improvisation and sound exploration. Within the framework of cooperative seminars between the Akademie für Tonkunst and the department for Childhood Studies at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt Gesa Rachel Biffio teaches Music Practice and Aesthetics for Music and Social Pedagogy students who choose to work with arts education in community outreach programs. Her experiences showed her the importance of structured methods for social initiatives that use musical performances on the one hand as a tool for positive social experiences, and on the other hand as space for self-expression of the participants. Together with her colleagues, she develops interdisciplinary research methods on multicultural music education for communities in migration and conflict situations, which she presents in international speeches and consulting. 

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Published

2024-02-04

Issue

Vol. 15 (2018)

Section

Articles