Higher Music Education in Europe has undergone enormous changes over the last two decades. The implications of the Bologna process at institutional level for conservatories in European countries were overwhelming. There has been an intensification of intellectual interest and curiosity concerning the field of musical practice. Musicians want a fuller understanding of how performances and compositions come into existence, and what the motives and methods used by musicians in the process of art-formation are. Conservatories have been developing study programmes, especially in second and third cycles, in which the emerging area of artistic research plays a crucial role. 

There is a discernible increase in the number of conservatoire-based teachers and students interested not only in pursuing excellence in performance but also in understanding more about what this excellence might be, and how it is both achieved and recognised. Their new developments create challenges and opportunities in the worldwide landscape of Higher Music Education, which will be discussed during the presentation.