- News Skills 4 News Artists is a pedagogical project that seeks to promote the acquisition of cross-cutting knowledge about entrepreneurship, marketing and technology among young musicians.
- The project has been led by the Reina Sofía School of Music, in collaboration with Munster Technological University (Ireland), Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (Belgium) and Grupo DEX (Spain) and has been funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus + National Agency in Spain, the SEPIE (Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education).
Madrid, February 14, 2022.- The Reina Sofía School of Music today presented New Skills 4 New Artists (NS4NA), a project funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus + National Agency in Spain and the SEPIE (Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education), which has been carried out in partnership with Munster Technological University (Ireland), Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (Belgium) and Grupo DEX (Spain).
“This 30-month European cooperation project has reinforced the mission of the Reina Sofía School, providing new tools for musicians to acquire more skills and for music to reach all audiences,” said Julia Sánchez, CEO of the Reina Sofía School, during the welcome to the conference.
The project was born after an analysis of the labor market faced by musicians who begin their professional career, which found that, among the necessary skills, complementary skills to the artistic ones are required. NS4NA addresses a gap identified in the training of musicians and artists in general and undertakes this paradigm shift with the development of a training program that helps the acquisition of knowledge and skills that improve the professional prospects of musicians.
“The project has been designed with the intention of increasing the employability of performing musicians. To increase their commercial, production and distribution skills of their work. Self-employment for an artist is vital and with NS4NA innovative practices have been promoted in music education in general and in education for entrepreneurship in particular”, highlighted the project coordinator, Esther Viñuela.
The project was launched in September 2019 and after a period of study and analysis of the needs of young musicians and other training courses on the market, the three training modules to be implemented were created:
-Entrepreneurship for musicians
-Technology for musicians
-Digital marketing, communication and Social Networks
In 2021, as a practical application of the work carried out, two pilot trainings were carried out between March and December in which 75 musicians from Spain, Ireland and Belgium participated.
Today’s event is the culmination of the project, with the presentation of the didactic guides developed and which are available free of charge to all music professionals, school and conservatory teachers, managers of educational entities and, in general, to the entire community gathered around music who want to promote the acquisition of skills that facilitate the transition to the professional field. The guides are available in this link.
“The guides segmented into the three modules worked on, indicate exercises, recommendations for use, key concepts to teach, estimated working time for both the teacher and the student, and an appendix with the slides used during each module to inspire and add more details”, argued Esther Viñuela.
Next Thursday, February 17, the project will be presented at the Munster Technological University in Ireland, and on February 25 at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels.
Conference of Higher Centers of Music Education
Likewise, the II Conference “Future Perspectives for Higher Centers of Music Education” was held at the Reina Sofía School of Music, in which various presentations were given on the employability of students, the international projection of musical institutions (given by Christoffer Frediksson of the Stockholm University of the Arts) or the implementation of artistic research (by the international pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore), among other topics of interest. Representatives from 18 higher centers of music education attended the Conference.
