Context and targets of the project. INTERMUSIC (INTERactive environment for MUSIC learning and practising) is a development project carried out on the basis of a strategic partnership between European Music Higher Education Institutions. The main objective is to create an online shared Platform for the distance learning dedicated to music teaching and practice that will enable modelling and sharing the best training practices for musicians as well as joint courses and online projects. INTERMUSIC will (1) support online synchronous singing, instrumental solo performance and chamber groups classes where teachers and students interact in real time in an audio-video communication environment of the highest quality; (2) use and integrate methodologies and technologies of Blended Learning and Virtual Learning Environments in music higher education. The available online teachings will be transnational and shared, thus providing with excellent prospects for internationalization. This will also ensure continuity, expansion and innovative development over time. Participants. Project coordinator: Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” Milan (ConsMi); Partners: Royal Danish Academy of Music (RDAM) Copenhagen; Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) Vilnius; Politecnico di Milano (PoliMi); Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique at Musikhochschulen (AEC). This partnership features three among the world’s most renowed Music HEIs, the largest technical University in Europe, among the top 50 in the world, and the European Association of Conservatoires with about 300 members in 55 countries, whose skills fully cover all areas of the project activities. The project is also sponsored by two associated partners, the Melbourne University Conservatory of Music (Australia) and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University (California, USA) whose management, jointly with AEC, will ensure monitoring and quality evaluation of the project as well as its outcomes, thus serving as an international Advisory Board. Activities. The main project activities will be focusing on the intellectual Outputs targets: 1) Development of the INTERMUSIC platform and of a distance interaction system for music; 2) Research reports on interaction between musicians in a live performance both at distance as well as in presence; study and building up of a sound recording and reproduction system, coherent reconstruction of acoustic sources and environments, optimization of network services for the audio-visual communication and Network Music; 3) Production of INTERMUSIC platform and online courses users handbooks for teachers, and technicians; 4) Testing of three online pilot courses in music theory and composition, solo and chamber music performance, distance vocal and instrumental practice with Blended-Learning methodologies (online and in presence). Additional activities will consist of training sessions on the platform development and modelling of blended courses and multiplier events for the dissemination of the outcomes. Methodology. Distance Learning will be addressed and studied under the technical aspects of its implementation, as well as pedagogy and music related issues. Applied methodologies will be those of experimental research in order to identify the musical and pedagogical implications in music distance learning. Blended-learning methodologies will be analysed as well as protocols and devices for their testing will be created, in the belief that these outcomes may be useful for the development of innovative functions. Expected outcomes. Expected outcomes are (1) the adoption and embedding of INTERMUSIC in the curricula of a growing number of European and International HEIs, (2) the training of a staff specialized in the modelling of online courses, (3) the development and embedding of these courses in the official curricula and (4) cooperation and transnational sharing of the teaching programs. Impact. The project impact is expected to affect the whole European network of the music HEIs; moreover through the AEC and the associated partners cooperation will be fostered and eventually result into development of the project over time. Impact will also involve the curricula’s structure as well as its extension: students will more easily gain access to activities and courses of other Institutions. Eventually, this will also lead to a very concrete chance in order to set up transnational joint programmes. Long-term benefits. European Music HEIs will have at their disposal a complete platform serving as a transnational and worldwide extraordinarily powerful teaching and learning resource: this will enable access to the best musical teaching practices and creative traditions for the new generations of musicians all over the world; at the same time it will generate an increase in the resources needed for sustainability, quality and development of the project itself.
The INTERMUSIC project, as programmed and planned, concerned the following areas: teaching, creation and music production shared between four European Higher Music Education Institutions, through advanced and optimized systems for Remote Musical Interaction and Network Music Performance (NMP), starting from the Italian ultrawide network (GARR) connected to European and international broadband network infrastructures, promoting the processes of internationalization and mobility in the field of Higher Music Education. The online teaching and interaction for instrumental and vocal performance practices, composition and music theory, electronic music, was accompanied by a technological and experimental research focused on the "Synchronous Online Ensemble Performance" whose results were made public with four publications, one of which constitutes a chapter of a book dedicated to Online Music Teaching, with scientific and technological support for research by the fifth partner of the project, which was the Politecnico di Milano. According to the planned objectives, priority was given to the design and creation of the INTERMUSIC platform (INTERactive environment for MUSIC learning and practice) https://intermusic.lmta.lt/ through which the four European Institutions were able to share skills, methods and materials specifically developed for distance music practice and culture by experimenting cooperative forms of remote music teaching and practice (Distance Learning) between European music HEIs with a historical background rooted in their respective classical and contemporary musical cultures: the Intermusic Platform presents itself as a Learning Management System dedicated to music teaching, practice and performance in its various forms: singing, instrumental performance, both solo and ensemble, theoretical and compositional training, electronic music; full of courses and innovative materials such as those of the "Mastering Vocal Literature in Foreign Languages" blended pilot course. For each activity of the project, three referring teachers were involved for each of the teaching activities: Chamber Music, Chamber Singing, Musical Composition, Music Theory and Network Music Performance, for a total of 15 teachers. The respective virtual classrooms were populated by students from the three music HEIs with an average of about 30 students involved. The teaching, within the limits imposed by the COVID / 19 pandemic, ended with a chamber music concert in Vilnius with the students of the three institutions in presence at the end of an online educational activity and with various online sessions for the other pilot courses of the project. The results on the two fundamental sides of the project, the online musical and teaching practices based on the INTERMUSIC platform and the results of the scientific and technological research relating to Network Music Performance, confirmed useful, sustainable and effective application possibilities both for the interest and integration of the different European music teaching and practice traditions, as well as for the audio-video quality of online music practice, concerning virtual acoustic spaces and gestural - and therefore visual - communication in the interaction between musicians during live performances. The latency in the audio signals, in relation to the paths and nodes of the European network, gave a good and acceptable response, which can be absolutely improved both in terms of bandwidth and in the optimized management of the audio-video signal paths. The long-term benefits depend on the ability of European institutions to design, acquire, develop and accept an expanded teaching model, through the online development of specific teaching modules within the collaboration between teachers of different European institutions and made available to students on shared platforms.