Female conservatoire students’ voices regarding futures in the male-dominated world of western classical music: the communicative or controlled mirroring pianist body?

Previous research has reported a multitude of problems related to gender equality in higher music education and the professional field of Western classical music over the last decades. This study aimed to understand female conservatory piano students’ experiences of being and becoming musicians. Associative interviews with six students from three different European countries told their stories of studying the piano and their views of their futures as pianists and musicians in the male-dominated world of Western classical music. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in a hermeneutical narrative manner using Frank's theory of bodily voices. The findings show how these students are situated towards and through conservatory studies, either cultivated towards control and body-relatedness or desire and other-relatedness, which seem to influence their views of possible futures. Finally, we offer suggestions for how conservatory education could enable and support students in responsibly developing their own musical futures.