From music student to professional: the process of transition

The importance of transition points in the pathway of musical expertise development
has been acknowledged; “the longer a person engages in musical activities, the more
expert they are likely to become as performers, assuming that they pass through each
of the delineated stages successfully” (Papageorgi et al., 2007: p. 4, italics added).
The question of why some individuals successfully negotiate transitions from one
phase of musical development to another (in the sense that they sustain engagement
with music and continue to develop musical skills and artistry) while others do not has
been investigated (Hallam, 1998, O'Neill, 2002, Davidson et al., 1995). Much of this
research has been concerned with critical transitions during the formative years of
musical development, for example between the second and third phases proposed by
Manturzewska (1990) of intentional, guided development (approximately between the
ages of six and thirteen) and the hypothetical formation of an artistic personality
(approximately between ages thirteen and twenty-three). Transition into this latter
phase of development, characterised by greater demands in terms of deliberate
practice, performance and competition, has been described as the mid-life crisis of
young musicians, when the need to acquire or disown the interest in music becomes
paramount (Bamberger, 1982).

Little research exists that has specifically investigated what factors are implicated in
the successful management of the subsequent transition “between developing serious
competence and then moving further toward the limits of expertise” (Sosniak, 2006,
p. 297), which is interpreted here as corresponding with the transition from higher
education contexts into professional performance careers.

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