Today's musicians face major changes in their working environment.
To lector Rineke Smilde lifelong learning is about navigating in a changing world. ‘We life in a rapidly changing society and graduates have to be able to function in a multi-faceted music profession. To do that conservatoire students must be trained in adaptive learning environments. An important part of my work is aimed at the creation of such contexts.’

Many musicians have portfolio careers. They combine part time jobs with successive brief periods of work of various natures and collaboration with different disciplines. More than ever professional musicians face questions about their functioning and about making use of opportunities within new contexts. The research group Lifelong Learning in Music & the Arts does research to gain insight in the developments in the work place of the professional musician and related developments in society. The aim is to use this knowledge to contribute to increased employability of professional musicians in the future.

During the past years the research group Lifelong Learning in Music & the Arts has done research into the concept of Lifelong Learning and its implementation at the aggregation levels of the organisation, the curriculum, teachers, students and graduates. In the coming years the lectorate will continue to build on the results and findings of this research within four research strands.
Research into (lifelong) learning of musicians and artists remains a focal point. The second research strand concerns cross-arts and cross-sector practices. The research carried out under this heading is aimed at collaboration between art disciplines and with institutions from for example the health care or business sector. The collaboration between conservatoires and external professional organisations constitutes a third research line and ‘Healthy Ageing through Music & the Arts’ is the fourth. The background of this last one lies especially in looking for new audiences in society, and with this also in increasing employability for professional musicians and artists.