Samenvatting

The project Rhythm for Life has had a parallel project in Groningen, with the projects Learning to play an instrument at an elderly age and Creative workshops for the elderly. These were carried out in Groningen at the PCC in the framework of the research line HAMA of the research group LLMA. The second project has nearly finished, the first one will have been finished in August. Looking back on the past two years I think that international collaboration in these kind of projects is key. The projects are innovative, certainly seen from the perspective of the conservatoire. The way we have given shape to our research collaboration was twofold: in the first place, preceding the start of RfL and our project, there was a literature research, which was carried out by Rosie and a member of our research group. That led to a theoretical framework which could underpin what we undertook. We had a number of moments where we could collaboratively share the outcomes.There is so much to learn from each other, not in the least because London is a totally other place than Groningen, with a totally other social structure. Besides we did not only work in Groningen, within the creative music workshop framework we were actually working throughout the northern Netherlands. But also there is a lot to learn because the project here took other angles than the one in Groningen did. RfL aimed at a.o. generating knowledge on effects of learning to play an instrument at an elderly age and provided students with the opportunity to extend their teaching skills and learn to realize what it means to work with elderly people, this in a more or less holistic sense, entailing the whole social interaction, not just the didactics.