Internationalizing and localizing: Shaping community music in Germany

While community music is an internationally successful concept, and community musicians have been facilitating music learning worldwide for many years, community music is still almost unknown in Germany. This is rather surprising, because there are groups and activities in Germany, which (according to the international understanding) would qualify as community music. The concept of music for everyone, without relying on notions of talent or social class, as an activity that facilitates personal and group development, has also been known in Germany. Because music education in German schools is in a crisis, with music educators and scholars searching for new concepts and practices, it seems to be the right time now to introduce community music into the German music education discourse and practice. Community music offers solutions to some of the challenges of today’s music education classes in German schools, such as inclusion, participation, heterogeneity, connections between music education inside and outside of schools, or supporting students with special needs. The German example also raises the issue of internationalization and localization in music education, one of the most important challenges in times of globalization.