
Key Tenets
through helping, sharing, challenging, risk-taking and collaboration.
About ConNext
ConNext institutions recognise their shared commitment to musical and educational excellence. From a position of mutual respect, they commit to exploring together issues central to student, faculty and institutional growth. In particular, each institution seeks to work together as a network to evolve an ever-more student-centric learning environment with a focus on both excellence and relevance in a 21st-century context.
ConNext comprises the following member institutions:
Geneva University of Music
Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo
Orpheus Institute, Ghent
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Brisbane
Royal Conservatoire, University of the Arts, The Hague
Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal
Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts, Helsinki
University of Southern California Thornton School of Music
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore
ConNext institutions meet annually for shared training and exchange, and collaborate and intersect across the year through events, platforms and proactive communication.
Projects
A collection of past and upcoming initiatives enabled through collaboration across ConNext institutions, inspired by ConNext thinking, and seeking to push the envelope on higher music education.
ConNext participants are listed in alphabetical order. Project leaders/organisers are marked *.
Bringing together musicians from eight institutions across four continents, the third Musical Chairs presents workshops, concerts, and masterclasses featuring top students and distinguished professionals. Read more
*Schulich School of Music, Norwegian Academy of Music, Queensland Conservatorium, Sibelius Academy, YST Conservatory
A work that honours victims of the Khmer Rouge regime and violent conflicts worldwide, and seeks to encourage dialogue and progress towards peace. It combines live music (Western orchestra and traditional Cambodian), movement and visuals, and brings together the Western requiem and bangsokol, a ceremony that accompanies Cambodian funeral rites. Read more
*YST Conservatory, Norwegian Academy of Music

A triennial artistic research symposium exploring, and reflecting upon, ways in which the moment of performance engages with the multifaceted concepts of “present”: the present time and place; to offer a present; and the act of presenting an event. Read more
*YST Conservatory, Norwegian Academy of Music, Orpheus Institute, Queensland Conservatorium, Royal Conservatoire The Hague, Schulich School of Music
Sibelius Summer Academy is a summer study programme offered by the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki in Finland. It offers young talents a chance to work and perform together with world-class teachers, artists and other students in an encouraging and inspiring international environment with state-of-the-art facilities. Read more
The Orpheus Institute’s MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) offers an introduction to the most relevant research tools, techniques and methodologies as well as the key concepts of artistic research in music. The free 12-week online course, featuring Orpheus Institute artist-researcher and experts from international institutions around the world, engages musicians with an expert artistic practice, some engagement with its theory, history and context, as well as an inquiring mind. Read more
The Orpheus Research Summit addressed the need for a coherent programme of advanced training and development in artistic research, and provided a moment of reflection and revitalisation for established artist-researchers. It explored individual and common themes, as well as technical and theoretical topics at the edge of current state of artistic research in music, in order to equip artists and institutions to plot its future. Read more
The 2018 RENEW Project Final Conference, as part of the RENEW project in conjunction with the Association of European Conservatoires, explored the implementation of entrepreneurship teaching in higher arts education. Read more
Norwegian Academy of Music, Royal Conservatoire The Hague, Sibelius Academy
LATIMPE is a joint initiative launched by the Association of European Conservatoires and the Centre of Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music. It aims to be a broad and inclusive network of AEC member institutions towards investigating, developing and strengthening learning and teaching processes in music performance education across all musical genres. Read more
The Performance Studies Network Conference aims to debate theories, methodologies and practices of performance, and to engage with increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary developments in the field in order to encourage a more global perspective on performance studies. Read more
*Norwegian Academy of Music, Orpheus Institute, Queensland Conservatorium, Schulich School of Music, Sibelius Academy, YST Conservatory
Bringing together musicians from seven institutions across four continents, the Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival presented workshops, concerts and masterclasses featuring top students and renowned professionals. Read more
*Schulich School of Music, Norwegian Academy of Music, Queensland Conservatorium, Sibelius Academy, YST Conservatory
ConNext engagement has sparked cultural and structural shifts reflected in the BMus curriculum at the YST Conservatory. Read more
A two-day event where contributors from around the world gathered to explore the integration of artistic research results into musical training at the conservatoire level, going beyond the mere teaching of research skills in the curriculum to influence the instrumental and compositional practice being taught, and allowing the realities of musical training to be fed back into artistic research itself. Read more
*Orpheus Institute, *Norwegian Academy of Music, Royal Conservatoire The Hague, YST Conservatory
A group borne out of a passion for pedagogy, practicing and performance planning, seeking to develop practical strategies for musicians and music teachers in areas such as planning practice, goal-setting, mind training, optimal experience ideas, and sports coaching concepts - so as to inspire greater achievement of potential. Read more
Sibelius Academy, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, Royal Conservatoire The Hague