Transcendent Music Performance in Higher Education

Almost every musician has had shining moments of what can only be called transcendence. These moments are not marked by adrenaline highs or emotional catharsis, but by crystalline clarity and a feeling of home¿ where everything makes sense without thought or judgment, and nothing needs to be analyzed or compared. These are moments of pure beauty. If truth be told, such experiences are what draw performers and audiences to music performance. Consciously or unconsciously, people are seeking to replicate these peak experiences. This study explores the phenomenon of transcendent music performance by listening to the stories of professional musicians and educators who have actually had the experience, and by synthesizing literature from many different disciplines that are relevant to this subject. All stories are archetypal in a very real sense, and though the characters and settings change, the universal experiences shine through. This is the beauty of story-telling, which is what phenomenology is at its heart. And this phenomenological study of transcendent music performance offers a new model for transformative change in higher education.