This article describes an innovative approach to analysing, describing and evaluating the careers of musicians, and applies it in the case of 37 "professors", that is, instrumental teachers, working at a conservatoire in the UK. The professors emerge as flexible and committed musicians who enjoy teaching conservatoire students, and who…

Questions the extent to which assessment of solo musical performance can be made under the General Certificate of School Education exam in England and Wales. Discusses performances as criterion. Reports on experiment which attempted to assess a student's overall music performance. Offers a model which can be used to better measure solo music…

We focus on the music students at a conservatoire (A) that only trains performers and composers (performers/composers); a conservatoire (B) that also trains classroom teachers (education students); and a university (C) with only education students. We used a questionnaire to compare the experience and beliefs as instrumental teachers of the…

Discusses the subjectivity, reliability, and musical validity of both holistic and segmented assessment of musical performance. Summarizes an experiment investigating the extent to which holistic assessment can be accounted for by means of a segmented grading system. Concludes that, although a single grade provides limited information about…

Compares the quality of music education in a sample of primary and secondary schools in England during the academic year of 1993-94. Finds that lessons given in primary schools matched the needs of learners and were adjusted by teachers according to student responses. Concludes that primary schools' quality of teaching was higher. (CMK)