‘Listeners in a Multi-Musical Soundscape’ is a narrative/biographical research project into music-listening behaviour of individuals in (late-)modern western society. The research question is: Can we, based on a study of listeners’ behaviour in the Groningen region of the Netherlands as an example of early 21st century western society, empirically underpin the need for a broadened view on music to be used by conservatoires (and specifically by the Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen) in order to prepare students better for functioning as professional musicians in the multimusical soundscape of the 21st century?

The research project starts with a first exploration of the field by means of a combination of observation and description of the multimusical soundscape of the region of Groningen, an analysis of short-term logbooks by listeners, and semi-structured interviews with musicians. On that basis narrative/biographical interviews with a broad sample of listeners in the Groningen area will be carried out. The project intends to give insight into the actual diversity of individual listening behaviour and, if possible, to offer a conceptual model which enables musicians to determine ways of interacting with (possible) audiences. By doing that, it will contribute to debates in higher education studies as well as (ethno)musicology, and will apply narrative/biographical research methodologies in the new area of research into music listeners.