Exploring performing

Today, more than ever before, the nature and role of musical performing in society is under scrutiny. We live in a “postperformance world”, where musical performing is no longer essential for accessing or consuming music. What, therefore, is the place of musical performing in today’s classrooms? This chapter will reflect on current classroom performance practices and the ways in which they often resemble high-stakes, exclusive “presentational performance”. Alternatively, “participatory performance” – in which there are no artist–audience distinctions – could be incorporated into the classroom to provide an accessible means of cultivating the unique evolutionary values of making music with others: diverse inclusivity, social coherence, and cognitive flexibility. Drawing on Evans’ (2016, ‘Performing for musical understanding’. In Cooke, C., Evans, K., Philpott, C., & Spruce, G. (Eds.), Learning to teach music in the secondary school: A companion to school experience (3rd ed.). London: Routledge) introduction to whole-class workshopping, this chapter will consider how to design and deliver lessons involving whole-class participatory performance and explore the role of ipsative assessment and community evaluation. It will conclude by evaluating the benefits and challenges of whole-class participatory performance and its potential to be integrated with improvisation, composition and community initiatives.