Identity interrupted: negotiating artistic identities in the time of COVID-19

The same 12 pitches. The same score. Clear directions passed down through centuries of quasi-sacred tradition in a regular, systematic method of transmission. Yet each pair of hands laid on the instrument gives rise to a new and distinct experience. Music may be the language, and technique the vocabulary, but it is the unique story being told, the product of individual identities, which makes each performance meaningful.
The pandemic has caused widespread disruption to pedagogical rhythms, with new patterns arising out of necessity: advice is imparted via headphones, skills taught remotely. Beyond these more practical curricular experiences, however,the disruption to the rhythms of interpersonal interaction by newly imposed boundaries has had a profound effect on the way music students develop and negotiate their identities. Building on Alfred Schutz’s model of sociological phenomenology, an argument will be made for the importance of identity formation within tertiary music education, followed by an examination of the ways in which this has been disrupted recently. Performers must, as always, be prepared for the scrutiny of the semiotic microscope as the audience searches for meaning. This paper explores ways of supporting students as they discern and curate their stories and identities against new pedagogical cadences.