Classical Music Higher Education: Developing multilingual disciplinary literacies for the academy, workplace and society

Classical music higher education (CHME) attracts students worldwide, pursuing their practical studies with their “maestro”. In addition, music universities require students to develop relevant academic competences, resulting in the artistic expertise necessary for internationally active professional musicians. While such internationalisation might suggest the Englishisation of CMHE, our case study set in a renowned music university in Austria (“AMU”) has revealed multilingual practices, combining German as the main institutional language with English as the academic second language and the use of other languages when functionally relevant. To capture the correspondingly complex disciplinary literacies (DLs) aimed for at AMU, this paper first argues for a multilayered and dynamic conceptualisation of DL for CMHE. Based on a thematic analysis of 12 interviews with management, teachers and students, we then provide insights regarding the students’ envisaged and enacted communicative practices within and beyond the academy. While multilingualism is relevant across settings, the different roles of language in theoretical and practical classes (as constitutive, ancillary and object of learning) describe an intertwined and dynamically developing range of multilingual DLs. Generally supported by flexible and helpful teaching practices, the students’ reported DL development also reveals educational challenges and affordances related to the diverse linguistic, disciplinary and academic backgrounds.