NMH’s Children’s Concert Series – experiences from participating students

This article explores music students’ attitudes towards, experiences of, and thoughts about rehearsing and performing music for children. The research is connected to the Children’s Concert Series (2020–2023), a student initiative at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH). This concert series aimed to elevate the status, within higher music education (HME), of music performances for young audiences, enhancing students’ skills in this area and providing valuable work experience. Applying a grounded theory method approach (GTM), this research followed the concert series from the very beginning. Observations during rehearsals and concerts, along with pre – and post-performance focus group interviews with participating students, were the primary methods of data collection. A significant pattern (tension, relief and learning) was identified in the development of students’ attitudes, expectations and emotional engagements across the stages of planning, performing and evaluating the children’s concerts. This study’s findings suggest that experiences in performing for children within HME can function as a pedagogy of interruption, providing valuable experiences and learning that strengthen music students’ overall music mediational skills.