This comprehensive international volume, edited by Catherina Christophersen and Ailbhe Kenny (Reference CHRISTOPHERSEN and KENNY2018), is essential reading for musicians, teachers and researchers who are working, or wish to work, collaboratively in educational settings.

Partnership working which connects musicians, teachers and students is on the rise, and the book’s collection of diverse and carefully curated perspectives, from scholars representing 11 countries, attests to this. As Bresler notes in the opening, this is a burgeoning area of research. Indeed, collaborative practice forms the backdrop in several recent BJME articles (inter alia Viig, Reference VIIG2019; Rodríguez-Sánchez, Odena, & Cabedo-Mas, Reference RODRÍGUEZ-SÁNCHEZ, ODENA and CABEDO-MAS2018; Kenny, Reference KENNY2018; Baker, Bull, & Taylor, Reference BAKER, BULL and TAYLOR2018). This timely volume is divided into three sections: Critical Insights, Crossing Boundaries and Working Towards Partnership, each with an emphasis on theoretical frameworks, challenges around such initiatives and empirical studies, respectively.

Arguably, the trend towards partnership working in music education has not been met with relative critical evaluation and, as a result, partnership approaches are ‘broadly considered to be innocuous’ (Partington, Chapter 14; also Christophersen, Reference CHRISTOPHERSEN2015). This was previously noted by Ross (Reference ROSS2003) (speaking from an English perspective) who subsequently questions what the role of arts-in-education ought to be in the midst of an already challenging music education landscape:

Moreover, such partnership programmes tend to – excuse the pun – make a song and dance about their impact, something that Kenny and Christophersen describe as ‘victory narratives’ (Chapter 1, p. 3). Thankfully, this volume does not shy away from challenging notions of collaboration in its myriad forms. Anchored by contributors’ stimulating research questions, it offers rich theoretical and empirical insights which address many tensions existing in the field. Bresler’s foreword, for example, invites us to consider the questions ‘what is good collaboration?’ and ‘what is collaboration good for?’ I very much enjoyed discovering my own answers to these questions throughout the book’s 20 chapters which cover diverse contexts, such as song writing in Finland (Chapter 7), Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong (Chapter 8), and one teaching artist’s heartfelt account of working with young musician, Abigail, through iPad improvisation in a special educational needs centre in the USA (Chapter 13).

A significant theme in the book is that ‘good collaboration’ stems from strong relationships between musicians, teachers and students. Kerin and Murphy (Chapter 19) assert that ‘collaboration is a complex, elusive, mercurial process that has human temperament at its core’ (p. 228). Allowing space for reflection and being open to the professional knowledge each stakeholder brings (Kinsella et al., Chapter 16) can build trust and create an ethos where ‘success… [is] not measured by a glittering end concert, but by the learning of participants’ (ibid., p. 190). This connects to dialogic practice, where all are ‘seen and heard by others’ (Benedict, Chapter 6, p. 69), which reappears throughout the volume as key to meaningful collaboration (see Eidsaa, Chapter 12, for a fascinating study which focuses on dialogic interactions between musicians and teachers.). In dialogic practice, the interest is not so much in the ‘glittering concert’ or end product, rather ‘the real artwork lies in the interaction that occurs’ (Holdus, Chapter 3, p. 31 citing Bourriaud, Reference BOURRIAUD2002). But this does require openness, and time, and a certain amount of vulnerability. We see this in the journal entry of an overwhelmed portfolio musician who finds herself thinking about new encounters with partner teachers during her commute:

Engaging in this thought process is arguably a good thing, since

With regards ‘what is collaboration good for?’, there are several encouraging testimonies. Abeles (Chapter 11) describes how a cross-curricular arts project gives a music teacher the opportunity to shine: ‘[the programme] promoted value among the faculty for her insight and skills: “I don’t think they realized that I had anything to offer and now they’re coming more and more to me…”’ (p. 128). In another project in which teachers develop their knowledge of Cantonese Opera, ‘direct interaction with the genre and the artist brings the teacher new challenges and stimulation, which may refresh their artistic and teaching lives’ (Leung, Chapter 8, p. 91).

Of course when considering good collaboration, we also ought to consider what constitutes ‘bad’ collaboration. This volume tackles the many tensions which exist in collaborations including ambiguities around roles and responsibilities (Rolle et al., Chapter 5), perceived dichotomies between teachers and musicians, undervalued expertise and questionable agendas of funders and organisations. In the case of the latter, Kenny and Christophersen note how ‘where such music-in-education initiatives are government funded…issues of balancing artistic aims with governmental social, cultural, economic, or political remits often arise’ (Chapter 1, p. 4). Hultberg (Chapter 9) notes how in the Swedish context, ‘highly respected cultural organizations subsidise the events, which may give rise to the impression that these are imposed on schools’ (p. 96). With all of these competing agendas, the educational dimension is at risk of being overlooked. As a doctoral student researching conceptions of learning in music education partnerships, I found Benedict’s analysis of orchestral education mission statements (Chapter 6) particularly thought-provoking; upon reading them she concludes that ‘the embedded assumption as to what constitutes learning (and the purpose of learning) remains unclear’ (p. 66).

Aforementioned issues can manifest in practice. Kerin and Murphy (Chapter 19) use harmony as a metaphor to describe a ‘monophonic’ partnership ‘where certain individuals guarded aspects of the knowledge as theirs’ resulting in a teacher who felt side-lined, confiding: ‘I felt a distinct “back off, you’re in my territory now”’ (p. 225). Conversely, in another setting, an artist shares that they are

These are specific cases between individuals, and as Hallam asserts, ‘it is people who make partnerships work (or not!)’ (Reference HALLAM2011, p. 159). However, it does raise questions about the contrasting pressures faced by musicians and teachers, and the distinct contexts they operate in. Indeed, knowledge of one another’s contexts is considered a key competency for collaborative working (Boyce-Tillman, Chapter 10). Smith (Chapter 4) captures this contextual dissonance noting how

He calls for collaboration grounded in a punk pedagogical perspective to ‘disrupt the binary’ (p. 46) and allow musicians to be teachers and teachers to be musicians. Elsewhere, giving higher education students freedom to teach young musicians through playing music alongside them – ‘I’m just a bass player in their band’ – repositions hierarchies and situates learning in everyday practices (Lave and Wenger, Reference LAVE and WENGER1991; Lave, Reference LAVE2011). Attitudes and values are important, and another project is successful because ‘the composer’s fundamental view was that everyone was a potential composer’ (Holgersen et al., Chapter 18, p. 214).

Rounding up this review, this notion of potential really sticks. Partington strives for ‘real and equal partnership between teacher and musician in which the musical, artistic, and pedagogical potential of both partners might be realized’ (Chapter 14, 163). Clearly, there is much potential when musicians, teachers and students come together, but partnerships operate within a ‘fragile space’ (Benedict, Chapter 6, p. 69) and need to be handled with care and consideration from the outset.

Overall, this volume compellingly covers a vast array of themes, which are expertly tied together by the editors in the conclusion, and cannot be captured in one book review. It is a worthwhile read and will interest all in music education whom believe that ‘in times of austerity and budget cuts in many jurisdictions, we owe it to our young people to ensure that they are having the best exposure to multiple ways of working that we can provide for them’ (Kinsella et al., Chapter 16).